mm 

mm 


mm 


tibravy  oftht  theological  ^eminarp 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

John  Stuart  Conning,  D.D. 

BM  155  .R86  1913 

Ruppin,  Arthur,  1876-1943. 

The  Jews  of  to-day 


THE    JEWS   OF   TO-DAY 


THE  JEWS  OF 
TODAY 

BY 

DR.   ARTHUR    RUPPIN 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  GERMAN  BY 

MARGERY   BENTWICH 

WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

JOSEPH   JACOBS,    Litt.D. 

AUTHOR  OF  "  STUDIES  IN  JEWISH  STATISTICS" 


NEW  YORK 
HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

1913 


CONTENTS 

PART  I.     ASSIMILATION 

Section  1.     Assimilation  in  the  Diaspora  a  constant 
menace  to  Judaism 


I.  Review   of    Jewish    Assimilation, — His- 
torical and  Sociological, 

The  process  of  disruption  in  the  present  day.  Social 
life  of  the  Jews  before  their  emancipation.  The  eman- 
cipation of  the  Jews.  The  disintegration  of  Judaism  by 
adoption  of  modern  education.  Analogous  assimilative 
movements  of  the  Jews  in  the  epochs  of  Greek  and 
Arabic  culture.  The  assimilation  of  minor  nationalities 
— a  common  social  phenomenon.  Reasons  for  the 
power  of  resistance  to  assimilation  shown  by  the 
Jews  hitherto.  The  breakdown  of  the  obstructions 
to  assimilation  and  consequent  breaking-up  of 
Jewry. 


II.  The  Numerical  Strength  of  the  Jews,  -        30 

Retrospect  on  the  number  of  Jews  since  the  dispersion. 
Lost  branches  of  Judaism.  The  existing  numbers  of 
Jews,  and  the  spread  of  Jewry.  The  local  distribution 
of  the  Jews. 


vi  CONTENTS 

Section  II.     The  Causes  of  Rapia  Assimilation 
in  the  Present  Day 

CHAF.  PAGE 

III.  Economic  Progress  of  the  Jews,  -        -        47 

New  value  attached  to  the  commercial  activities  of  the 
Jews  since  the  dawn  of  the  capitalistic  era.  Success  of 
the  Jews  in  capitalistic  enterprise.  Wealth  of  the  Jews 
in  industrially  developed  countries.  Poverty  of  the 
Jews  in  industrially  backward  countries.  The  prin- 
cipal vocations  followed  by  Jews.  Non-wage  earning 
dependents  of  the  West-European  Jews.  Possibilities 
of  advance  in  the  industrial  position  of  the  Jews  of 
Eastern  Europe. 


IV.  The  Declining  Birth-Rate,  -        -        -        69 

Decline  in  the  Jewish  birth-rate  and  its  causes.  Low 
death-rate  of  the  Jews  partially  equalises  the  effect  of 
the  low  birth-rate.  Decrease  in  numbers  resulting  from 
birth-rate. 


V.  Dispersion,    ------        85 

Immigration  to  the  United  States.  Immigration  to 
England.  Summary  of  immigration  and  emigration. 
Influence  of  emigration  on  assimilation.  Inland 
migrations. 


VI.  Congestion  in  the  Large  Towns, - 

Causes  of  rapid  assimilation  in  large  towns.  Statistics 
of  the  centralisation  of  Jews  in  large  towns.  Preference 
for  the  capitals.     London  and  New  York. 


CONTENTS  vii 

Section  III.     The  Various  Phases  of  Assimilation 

CHAP.  1'AGE 

VII.  Adoption  of  the  Language  of  the 

Country,    -  109 

Changes  of  language  in  the  history  of  the  Jews.  Causes 
of  the  changes  of  language.  The  spread  of  Yiddish. 
Extent  of  the  adoption  of  European  languages.  Changes 
of  language  and  its  relation  to  assimilation. 

VIII.  Adoption  of  Cosmopolitan  Culture,  -       119 

The  Jew's  craving  for  education.  The  decline  of  the 
"  Cheder."  Increasing  importance  of  secular  schools. 
The  Universities.     Modern  culture  and  assimilation. 

IX.  Decreasing  Importance  of  Religion,  -      137 

Origin  of  the  Jewish  religion.  Jewish  orthodoxy  in  the 
present  day.     Liberal  Judaism.     Destructive  forces. 

X.  Intermarriage,    -  -      157 

The  increase  of  intermarriage.  The  children  of  mixed 
marriages.     Losses  to  Judaism  caused  by  intermarriage. 

XI.  Baptism,       -  181 

Conversion  in  former  times.  Baptism  at  the  present 
day.     Missionary  societies.     Prognostics  for  the  future. 

XII.  Anti-Semitism  an   Ineffective   Check 

to  Assimilation,      -  197 

Anti-Semitism  in  Germany  and  Austria.  Anti-Semi- 
tism in  other  countries.  Causes  of  anti-Semitism.  The 
importance  of  anti-Semitism  in  the  assimilationist 
movement. 


viii  CONTENTS 

PART   II.     JEWISH   NATIONALISM 

Section  IV.     The  Foundations  of  Jewish  Nationalism 

CHAP.  PACE 

XIII.  Race  Value  of  the  Jews,    -        -         -      211 

The  justification  for  the  continued  existence  of  the  Jews 
as  a  separate  nation.  The  intellectual  gifts  of  the  Jews. 
The  artistic  proclivities  of  the  Jews.  The  Jews  and 
ethics.     The  value  of  the  Jewish  race. 

XIV.  Cultural  Value  of  the  Jews,  -        -      229 

Race  and  culture.  The  value  of  modern  Jewish  culture. 
The  new  Jewish  culture  a  combination  of  Jewish  tra- 
dition with  modern  education. 

Section  V.     The  Aims  of  Jewish  Nationalism 

XV.  Creation  of  a  Self-Contained  Jewish 

Economic    Life    by    a    return    to 
Agriculture,  -  -      241 

The  importance  of  agricultural  occupation  for  a  com- 
munity of  Jews.  Small  participation  of  Jews  in  agri- 
culture. Results  of  Jewish  agricultural  colonisation 
hitherto.  Economic  possibility  of  a  return  to  agri- 
culture.    Colonisation — philanthropic  and  national. 

XVI.  Revival  of  the  Hebrew  Language,    -      259 

Yiddish  and  Hebrew.  Hebrew  as  the  national  language 
in  Palestine. 


CONTENTS  ix 


XVII.  Local  Segregation  of  the  Jews,       -       265 

Local  segregation  and  its  relation  to  culture.  Pros- 
pects of  segregation  in  Eastern  Europe.  Prospects  of 
segregation  in  the  colonies — Territorialism.  Prospects 
of  segregation  in  Palestine — Zionism. 


Section  VI.      Zionism 


XVIII.  Zionism, -      275 

Origin  and  growth  of  Zionism.  Revival  of  Judaism 
by  Zionism.  Economic  activity  of  the  Zionists  in 
Palestine.  Zionism  and  the  Turkish  Government. 
Relations  with  the  non- Jewish  population  of  Palestine. 
Economic  possibilities  for  Jewish  immigrants  in  Pales- 
tine.    The  prospects  of  Zionism. 


Index,      ------      303 


INTRODUCTION 

"  Life  is  interesting,  if  not  happy,"  Sir  John  Seeley 
used  to  say.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  Jews  who 
have  had  the  unfortunate  knack  of  attracting  the 
world's  attention  to  themselves  for  the  last  two  thousand 
years,  with  results  often  disastrous  to  themselves. 
Formerly  the  interest  was  theological.  The  Jews  were 
the  solitary  exception  to  the  Christian  consensus.  Yet, 
curiously  enough,  just  as  theology  is  losing  its  hold 
on  the  world's  attention,  the  interest  in  the  Jew  has 
risen  again  to  the  same  heights  as  before. 

Indeed,  the  modern  Jew  is  anomalous  enough  to 
attract  the  attention  of  a  world  curious,  above  all 
things,  about  anomalies.  The  most  modern  of  men 
with  the  most  ancient  of  faiths,  sceptical  yet  loyal, 
materialist  and  idealist  in  one,  cosmopolitan  yet 
priding  himself  on  his  patriotism,  conspicuous  among 
both  capitalists  and  socialists,  exploiter  and  exploited, 
the  Jew  remains  the  Sphinx  of  the  nations,  asking  the 
sempiternal  Jewish  question.  Or,  rather,  he  is  always 
raising  a  whole  Cadmean  crop  of  questions,  economic, 
demographic,  religious,  social,  eugenical,  even  political. 
Are  the  Jews  of  to-day  the  direct  descendants  of  the 
Israelites  of  old  ?  Will  Judaism  survive  the  assaults 
of  modern  criticism  and  scepticism  ?  Are  Jews  a 
people,  a  nation,  a  sect  or  a  race  ?     Is  there  a  specific 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

Jewish  culture  differing  from  the  civilisations  of  the 
nation  among  whom  they  live  ?  Is  there  a  Jewish 
music,  a  Jewish  art  ?  What  is  the  cause  of  the  com- 
parative superiority  of  the  Jewish  intellect,  if  there  be 
such  superiority  ?  These  are  but  samples  of  questions 
that  have  been  raised  in  our  own  times  about  Jews  and 
still  lack  definite  answers. 

There  is  even  a  certain  scientific  interest  about 
investigations  into  Jewish  phenomena.  Thus  the 
question  about  the  purity  of  the  Jewish  race,  on  which 
so  much  has  been  written  of  recent  years,  has  a  direct 
bearing  on  the  opposition  noticed  by  the  late  Sir 
Francis  Gait  on,  between  the  nature  and  the  nurture 
of  men.  In  other  words,  does  birth  or  training  deter- 
mine human  characteristics  ?  The  Jews  throw  light 
upon  this  subject  whether  they  are  a  distinctive  race 
or  not.  If  they  are,  their  common  characteristics 
shown  in  such  different  parts  of  the  world  is  evidence 
of  the  influence  of  breed  or  nature.  If  they  are  not, 
the  same  characteristics  prove  the  influence  of  nurture, 
education  or  environment.  Jewish  characteristics 
have  even  been  made  the  subject  of  discussion  in  the 
struggle  now  going  on  between  the  Mendelians  and  the 
Biometricians.  The  former  assert,  the  latter  deny, 
that  Jewish  features  are  hereditable  in  mixed  marriages, 
according  to  the  Mendelian  Law. 

So  too,  the  sociologist  can  find  facts  for  or  against 
his  generalisations  from  Jewish  phenomena.  Jews,  for 
example,  are  predominantly  town  dwellers,  and  it  is 
a  problem  for  the  sociologist  to  ascertain  how  far  their 
common  characteristics,  e.g.,  their  shorter  height,  is 
due  to  this  fact.  Or  again,  the  difference  in  nurture 
may  show  striking  phenomena  even  in  the  same  town 
area.     Thus,   Sir   Isidore   Spielmann   and   myself,   on 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

measuring  the  heights  of  a  number  of  London  Jews, 
arrived  at  the  interesting  result  that  the  heights  of 
those  dwelling  in  the  West  End  or  richer  parts  of 
London  were,  on  an  average,  two  inches  greater  than 
those  dwelling  in  the  East  End  where  poverty  prevails. 
As  all  our  subjects  were  descendants  of  the  same  class 
of  Jews  the  increase  of  height  was  obviously  due  to 
better  nourishment. 

The  general  form  of  these  problems,  anthropological, 
sociological  or  demographic,  is  by  way  of  comparison 
both  in  the  popular  and  the  scientific  interest.  Jews 
are  the  more  musical,  or  more  materialistic,  or  richer, 
or  meaner,  than  their  Gentile  neighbours,  is  the  general 
way  of  making  statements  about  Jewish  characteristics. 
Yet  in  every  case  we  are  met  with  the  curious  fact 
that  while  some  Jews  are  more  musical  than  their  non- 
Jewish  neighbours,  they  have  a  larger  number  of  deaf 
mutes  who  cannot  be  musical ;  or  again,  while  some  of 
them  are  richer,  a  very  large  proportion  of  them  are 
poorer  than  others.  Such  contrasts  raise  problems 
which  have  something  more  than  a  mere  popular 
interest  of  curiosity. 

The  very  methods  by  which  such  problems  can  be 
approached  have  not  yet  been  determined.  The  nearest 
approach  is  afforded  by  the  Galtonian  curves  of  fre- 
quency, as  developed  by  Prof.  Karl  Pearson.  Roughly 
speaking,  this  method  consists  in  determining  how 
many  Jews  out  of  each  million  fall  within  each  of  the 
sixteen  classes  into  which  any  given  body  of  men  may 
be  divided  with  regard  to  the  possession  of  any  specific 
characteristic — musical  ability,  riches  and  poverty, 
intellect  and  insanity,  and  the  like.  Of  course,  the 
vast  majority  of  men,  when  ranged  in  order  of  merit 
with  regard  to  any  of  these  qualities,  cluster  round  the 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

centre  or  average  classes.  But  if  we  assume  that  the 
curves  of  distribution  thus  obtained  are  normal  or 
symmetrical,  the  differences  between  them  at  both 
extremes  should  be  the  same.  Thus,  if  at  the  superior 
limit  of  the  distribution  of  Jewish  intellect,  there  are 
more  geniuses  among  a  million  Jews  than  among  the 
same  number  of  Germans,  there  should  be,  at  the  other 
end  of  the  Jewish  curve  of  intellect,  more  idiots  and 
insane  persons  among  Jews  than  among  Germans  : 
this  is  found  to  be  the  case.  Similarly  they  have  both 
more  rich  and  more  poor,  more  persons  musically 
gifted,  but  yet  more  deaf  mutes,  more  philanthropists 
at  one  end  of  the  curve  of  altruism  and  more  greedy 
and  stingy  persons  at  the  other  end.  Thus,  by  a  mere 
deduction  from  rigid  mathematical  laws  many  of  the 
anomalies  that  the  Jewish  people  present  are,  to  some 
extent,  explained. 

The  difficulties  of  applying  such  a  method  are 
enormous,  and  indeed  I  believe  that,  up  to  the  present, 
I  have  been  the  only  person  sufficiently  daring  to 
attempt  such  an  explanation.  Your  average  man  is 
so  predominant  in  point  of  numbers  that  he  swamps 
all  those  much  above  or  much  below  the  average,  and 
yet  it  is  only  the  exceptional  persons,  as  a  rule,  that  we 
can  count.  Hence  in  making  deductions  about  the 
relative  position  of  two  races,  judged  by  their  respective 
curves  of  distribution,  or  rather  by  the  ends  of  such 
curves,  it  would  seem  as  if  we  were  making  the  tail  or 
even  the  tip  of  the  tail,  wag  the  dog.  Take,  for  example, 
an  instance  which  I  recently  had  occasion  to  work  out. 
In  the  fifth  edition  of  Wer  Isfs,  the  German  equivalent 
of  our  Who's  Who,  I  have  found  1064  Jewish  names 
out  of  the  16,000  therein  mentioned,  or,  in  other  words, 
6.5  per  cent.,  whereas  the  Jews  in  the  German-speaking 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

countries  are  not  much  more  than  i  per  cent.  Yet 
it  would  be  precarious  in  the  extreme  to  deduce  any 
conclusions  as  to  the  relative  superiority  of  intellect 
of  the  average  German-speaking  Jew  as  compared  with 
his  Gentile  neighbour.  Jews  are  predominantly  of  the 
mercantile  classes,  and  it  is  from  these  classes  almost 
exclusively  that  the  professional  element,  which  fills 
out  such  books  of  celebrities,  is  mainly  recruited. 

Thus  figures  when  applied  to  Jewish  phenomena  are 
often  deceptive,  or  at  least  have  to  be  interpreted  with 
great  care.  Yet  without  figures  what  have  we  ? 
Merely  impressions  or,  often,  only  prejudices,  which  are 
specially  strong  in  the  case  of  Jews.  Hence,  when 
examining,  some  thirty  years  ago,  into  the  charges 
which  anti-Semites  brought  against  the  Jews,  I  found 
it  necessary  to  get  as  many  numerical  facts  as  possible 
about  the  Jews  in  their  various  aspects,  economic, 
demographic,  and  the  like,  and  thus  started  a  series 
of  investigations  which  have  grown  into  a  whole 
literature,  of  which  this  book  of  Dr.  Ruppin's  is  a 
striking  example.  He  treats  his  subject,  at  least  in 
the  second  edition,  now  represented  in  this  English 
version,  from  the  standpoint  of  a  single  problem,  which, 
however,  touches  upon  most  of  the  other  problems 
which  the  Jewish  question  raises.  When  the  walls 
of  the  Ghetto  fell  some  fifty  years  ago  the  admission  of 
the  Jews  into  modern  society  on  comparatively  equal 
terms  raised  the  question  how  far  their  distinctive 
characteristics — intellectual,  cultural,  religious  and  the 
rest — would  survive  the  contact  with  modern  culture, 
from  which  repressive  legislation  had  hitherto  restrained 
them.  Would  they,  could  they  be  assimilated  into 
modern  European  culture  and  still  remain  Jews  in 
the  characteristics  they  had  retained  throughout  the 

b 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

Christian  ages  ?  That  is  the  problem  which  Dr.  Ruppin 
sets  himself  to  solve,  and  the  answer  he  gives  is  a  decided 
negative. 

Dr.  Ruppin  comes  to  this  conclusion  after  the  widest 
possible  induction  of  the  cultural  and  demographic 
facts  relating  to  modern  Jews.  He  starts  with  the 
assumption  that  there  was  a  specific  Jewish  culture 
developed  out  of  the  old  biblical  culture  of  Jews  into 
the  Ghetti  of  the  Middle  Ages  with  their  autonomous 
organisation  and  isolation  from  the  rest  of  the  world. 
This  culture  found  its  appropriate  medium  in  the  sacred 
language  of  Hebrew,  in  which  most  Jewish  children 
were  trained  from  their  earliest  youth,  and  was  fostered 
by  a  sense  of  common  descent  and  creed,  and,  in  later 
centuries,  of  common  persecution.  This  Ghetto  life 
and  culture  continued  down  to  the  middle  of  the  nine 
teenth  century  with  most  Western  European  Jews  and 
is  still  predominant  among  the  Jews  of  Eastern  Europe. 
But  it  is  being  broken  down  mainly  by  Jews  themselves 
who,  in  West  Europe  and  America,  have  deserted  the 
"  Chedarim,"  or  special  Jewish  schools  in  which 
Hebrew  is  taught.  They  frequent  the  schools  and 
colleges  of  the  nations  among  which  they  dwell  and,  in 
many  ways,  adopted  the  interest  of  their  neighbours 
in  preference  to,  or  side  by  side  with,  those  of  their 
own  people.  Dr.  Ruppin  also  points  out  the  rapid 
increase  of  intermarriage  between  Jews  and  Gentiles, 
especially  in  Germany  and  Austria,  which  almost 
necessarily  breaks  down  the  transmission  of  the  special 
Jewish  culture  to  the  children.  In  the  same  countries 
baptism  has,  of  recent  years,  considerably  increased 
as  a  means  of  getting  social  recognition  and  professional 
advancement.  Dr.  Ruppin  appears  to  think  that  the 
congestion  of  Jews  in  large  towns  is  also  a  factor  tending 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

to  assimilation.  But  it  is  difficult  to  agree  with  him 
on  this  point.  Surely  the  bringing  together  of  many 
Jews  is  rather  a  cause  of  the  retention  of  the  Jewish 
spirit  than  otherwise.  So  too,  the  recent  decline  in 
the  birth-rate  among  Jews  has  little  bearing  upon  the 
problem  of  assimilation  except,  in  so  far  as  by  limiting 
the  numbers  of  Jews  in  the  future,  it  may  render  the 
proportion  of  the  assimilated  comparatively  larger. 

However,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  on  the  whole, 
Jews,  especially  in  Western  Europe  and  America,  have 
become  more  like  their  neighbours  in  social  practices 
and  in  the  adoption  of  the  surrounding  culture  in  its 
widest  sense.  And  if  this  were  to  result  in  the  dis- 
appearance or  diminution  of  the  specific  Jewish  spirit 
this  would  be  a  misfortune  not  alone  for  the  Jews  them- 
selves but  for  the  world  in  general.  The  great  danger 
of  modern  times  is  the  tendency  towards  what  may  be 
termed  Chinesism,  a  fatal  and  monotonous  similarity 
and  mediocrity  invading  all  sections  of  national  life. 
One  of  the  outward  signs  of  this  is  the  deadly  monotony 
of  dress  and  furniture,  which  is  becoming  more  and 
more  international.  The  growth  of  inter-communica- 
tion is  giving  a  common  set  of  ideas  and  ideals  to  the 
whole  world  and  making  it  more  and  more  difficult  for 
an}7  special  culture  like  the  Irish,  or  the  Japanese,  or  the 
Jewish,  to  hold  its  own.  Every  such  specific  culture 
that  disappears  would  make  the  final  form  of  humanity, 
which  seems  so  rapidly  approaching,  less  rich  and 
manifold.  There  would  be  nothing  gained  for  the 
world  and  much  would  be  lost  for  it  if  all  Jews  were 
to-morrow  to  become  indistinguishable  from  their 
neighbours. 

But  does  it  altogether  follow  that  the  advance  of 
modern  culture  among  Jews  must  necessarily  destroy 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

their  specific  characteristics  and  ideals  ?  Modern 
civilisation,  in  some  of  its  chief  aspects,  is  based  upon 
the  Hebraic  ideals,  and  the  rapid  manner  in  which 
Jews  have  acquired  modern  culture  is  itself  a  proof 
that  there  is  no  incongruity  between  the  Jewish  folk- 
soul  and  European  civilisation.  In  England,  France, 
Germany  and  America  the  Jew,  in  the  immediate  past, 
has  shown  himself  quite  capable  of  being  strongly  and 
patriotically  English,  French,  German  and  American, 
but  still  retaining  his  devotion  to  his  faith,  his  interest 
in  the  fate  and  misfortunes  of  his  fellow  Jews  throughout 
the  world.  Such  Jews  have  had  a  duplex  culture, 
and  their  nature  has,  in  consequence,  become  richer 
and  more  iridescent.  So  far  as  this  is  so,  both  Jews 
and  the  world  have  gained  by  their  adoption  of  modern 
culture. 

But  in  one  respect  Jews  have  certainly  suffered 
incalculable  harm  by  their  assimilation  of  modern 
thought.  The  centre  of  Jewish  life  was  religion  ;  to 
uphold  the  ancestral  faith  was  their  raison  d'etre.  Yet 
modern  thought  has  largely  undermined  the  older 
revelational  views  of  religion,  of  which  Judaism  was 
the  typical  example.  It  is  one  of  the  ironies  of  history 
that  just  when  Jews  have  been  released  from  their 
mediaeval  bondage  and  have  been  admitted  to  political 
and,  to  some  extent,  social  equality  with  the  European 
nations,  the  faith  that  has  kept  them  alive,  and  at  the 
same  time  isolated  them  from  their  neighbours,  has 
been  disrupted  by  the  assaults  of  modern  rationalism. 
Anti-Semites  assert  that  much  of  modern  scepticism 
has  been  due  to  Jewish  influence  on  the  press  and 
general  literature.  The  process  has  been  rather  the 
other  way,  and  the  late  Anatole  Leroy-Benaieu  was 
undoubtedly  right  in  asserting  that  it  was    modern 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

culture  that  had  made  Jews  sceptical  rather  than  that 
Jews  had  interpenetrated  modern  culture  with  scep- 
ticism. There  is  a  rationalistic  strain  in  Jewish 
thought  and  theology,  as  is  illustrated  by  the  specula- 
tions of  Abraham  ibn  Ezra,  Maimonides  and  Spinoza  ; 
and  this  rationalism  has,  undoubtedly,  helped  the 
rapid  assimilation  of  modern  thought  by  Jewish 
thinkers.  But  the  disrupting  effect  came,  in  the  first 
place,  from  the  Encyclopedists  and  Kant. 

Yet  there  are  those  who  consider  that  the  funda- 
mentals of  Judaism  are  identical  with  the  most  pro- 
minent aspects  of  modern  thinking.  Its  two  main 
dogmas,  the  Divine  Unity  and  the  Messianic  Hope, 
only  express,  in  historic  form,  the  fundamental  scientific 
conception  of  the  Unity  of  Energy  and  the  essentially 
modern  notion  of  Progress.  Whatever  changes  the 
religious  consciousness  may  undergo  in  the  near  future, 
these  conceptions  will  survive,  and  Judaism  has  at  least 
as  great  a  chance  of  passing  uninjured  through  the 
critical  transition  of  religious  thought  as  any  of  the 
historic  faiths. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  Dr.  Ruppin's  work  raises  a 
world-problem  of  the  highest  interest.  The  answer 
he  gives  to  the  question  he  himself  has  raised  is  the 
Zionist  solution.  This,  as  is  well  known,  regards  the 
revival  of  Israel  as  a  political  entity  as  the  only  means 
of  combating  the  disappearance  of  the  Jewish  spirit. 
By  creating  a  Jewish  nation  on  the  soil  of  the  ancient 
fatherland  in  Palestine  Zionists  hope  to  revive  and 
intensify  the  special  Jewish  culture  which  has  lasted 
on  through  the  ages  till  its  existence  is  now  threatened 
by  the  assimilation  of  modern  culture.  It  is  recog- 
nised that  it  will  be  impossible  to  transfer  the  whole 
of  the  fourteen  million  Jews  of  the  world  to  the  narrow 


xx  INTRODUCTION 

confines  of  the  Holy  Land  ;  but  if  there  were  estab- 
lished a  spiritual  as  well  as  a  political  centre  in  Zion 
its  example  and  influence  would  radiate  through  all 
Jewish  communities  throughout  the  world  and  thus 
keep  alive  the  Jewish  folk-soul.  The  romance  of  the 
notion  must  appeal  to  every  heart,  Jewish  or  Gentile, 
conscious  of  the  aspirations  and  ideals  that  have 
clustered  round  the  Holy  Land  ever  since  the  fall  of 
the  Jewish  State. 

Without  going  into  the  general  question,  we  may 
doubt  how  far  the  Zionist  solution  meets  the  parti- 
cular problem  raised  by  Dr.  Ruppin  in  his  interesting 
work.  Jews  outside  Palestine — and  the  majority  of 
them,  it  is  recognised  on  all  hands,  must  remain  outside 
for  all  time — will  be  just  as  much  subject  to  the  assaults 
of  the  assimilative  forces  after  as  before  the  foundation 
of  a  new  Jewish  State.  The  difficulties  of  the  Jewish 
position,  now  due  to  their  being  an  inter-nation,  will 
be  rather  increased  than  diminished,  if  they  once  more 
form  a  nation.  There  will  be  troubles  of  Ultrama- 
rinism  corresponding  to  the  difficulties  of  Ultramon- 
tanism  in  the  Catholic  State. 

The  source  of  all  the  troubles  that  beset  the  Jews, 
in  their  relation  to  the  outer  world,  is  to  be  found  in 
the  continuance  of  their  mediaeval  status  in  one  great 
modern  Empire,  which  still  retains  a  constitution 
based  on  mediaeval  conceptions.  Russia  is  still  a 
Church-State,  in  which  only  those  who  belong  to  the 
National  Church  have  full  rights  as  citizens.  This 
obsolete  conception  must  break  down  in  Russia  as  it 
has  done  elsewhere,  with  the  development  of  industrial 
democracy  within  the  Czar's  dominions.  When  that 
day  arrives  the  Russian  Jews  will  take  their  fitting 
place  in  their  native  country  and  will  no  longer  be 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

thrust  elsewhere  into  that  sudden  contact  with  modern 
thought  which  leads  to  the  assimilation  so  much 
dreaded  by  Dr.  Ruppin.  Jews  throughout  the  ages 
have  faced  this  problem  of  assimilation  with  success, 
as  was  notably  shown  in  the  great  Spanish-Arabic 
period,  when  Jews  acquired  all  that  their  Arab  con- 
querors could  teach  them  of  Greek  science  and  philo- 
sophy without  losing  aught  of  their  Jewish  feeling  and 
culture.  The  same  occurred  in  Holland,  in  France, 
in  England,  and,  to  a  large  extent,  in  Germany.  The 
danger  of  a  conflict  of  cultures,  which  Dr.  Ruppin  so 
much  deprecates,  is  the  danger  of  religion  in  general, 
which  would  assail  Jews  even  on  the  sacred  soil  of 
Palestine  with  as  much  intensity  as  elsewhere. 

Dr.  Ruppin  has  another  and  more  personal  reason 
for  advocating  their  return  to  the  Holy  Land  as  a 
prophylactic  against  assimilation.  He  regards  a  return 
to  the  soil,  in  a  literal  sense,  as  a  necessary  means  of 
salvation  for  the  modern  man,  debased  and  degenerated 
by  urban  conditions.  In  its  general  aspects  this  is 
a  problem  too  large  to  be  discussed  in  this  place,  though 
it  may  be  remarked  that  the  increase  of  urban  taxation 
and  the  development  of  electrical  power  will  probably 
send  back  even  the  industrial  population  to  the  land 
before  another  generation  is  past.  Jews,  however, 
have  a  special  need  of  an  agricultural  element  owing  to 
their  having  been  so  long  cooped  up  in  towns,  leading 
to  a  one-sided  development  towards  intellectualism. 
Jewish  leaders  have  recognised  this  need  both  within 
and  outside  Palestine,  the  most  prominent  examples 
of  the  latter  being  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  colonies  in  the 
Argentine  and  the  40,000  Jewish  farmers  of  the  United 
States.  In  Palestine  itself  Zionistic  feeling  may  well 
aid  the  first  settlers  in  overcoming  the  natural  repug- 


xxii  INTRODUCTION 

nance  of  town-bred  men  to  the  toilsome  work  in  the 
fields.  Recently  an  agricultural  station  has  been 
established  mainly  by  American  Jews  in  Haifa,  Pales- 
tine, under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Aaronsohn,  the  dis- 
coverer of  "wild  wheat."  The  world-wide  tendency 
to  make  agriculture  a  branch  of  applied  science  is  thus 
made  effective  on  the  very  spot  where,  it  would  seem, 
agriculture  first  took  its  rise. 

I  have  now  discussed  most  of  the  points  raised  in  the 
following  pages  sufficiently  to  put  the  reader  in  a  posi- 
tion to  appreciate  their  wide  significance  both  for 
Jews  and  others.  It  remains  only  to  say  a  few  words 
of  the  man  to  whom  we  owe  these  suggestive  pages. 
Dr.  Arthur  Ruppin  was  born  on  March  ist,  1876,  and 
after  studying  law  and  economics  entered  the  Prussian 
State  service.  He  has  written  upon  the  Theory  of 
Value,  expounded  by  Thiinen  (1902),  and  on  Dar- 
winism and  Sociology  (1903),  besides  the  present  work, 
which  appeared  in  its  first  edition  (1904),  and  in  a  second 
form  in  191 1.  He  was  the  founder  and  first  editor 
of  the  Zeitschrift  fuer  juedische  Statistik  unci  Demo- 
graphic, of  which  eight  volumes  have  already  appeared. 
He  helped  to  found  as  well  a  Bureau  of  Jewish  statistics, 
which  has  issued  a  dozen  valuable  monographs  ;  so 
that  he  writes  on  matters  Jewish  with  the  fullest 
knowledge  of  all  the  information  that  can  be  obtained 
in  quantitative  form.  Dr.  Ruppin  has  proved  the 
ardour  of  his  convictions  as  a  Zionist  by  taking  up  his 
residence  in  Palestine  for  a  number  of  years,  and  he 
is  thus  in  a  specially  favourable  position  to  speaklof 
the  solution  he  proposes  of  the  problem  he  has  raised. 

JOSEPH    JACOBS. 


PART    I.      ASSIMILATION. 

SECTION  I. 

ASSIMILATION    IN  THE  DIASPORA  A  CONSTANT 
MENACE  TO  JUDAISM. 


CHAPTER  I. 

REVIEW   OF   JEWISH   ASSIMILATION- 
HISTORICAL  AND    SOCIOLOGICAL. 

A.  The  process  of  disruption  in  the  present  day. 

The  structure  of  Judaism,  once  so  solid,  is  crumbling 
away  before  our  very  eyes.  Conversion  and  inter- 
marriage are  thinning  the  ranks  of  Jews  in  every 
direction,  and  the  loss  is  the  heavier  to  bear,  in  that 
the  great  decrease  in  the  Jewish  birth-rate  makes  it 
more  and  more  difficult  to  fill  up  the  gaps  in  the  natural 
way.  Until  lately  this  breaking-up  process  was  con- 
fined to  Central  and  Western  Europe  ;  a  few  years  ago 
it  was  thought  it  could  only  gain  ground  there,  and 
that  the  six  million  Jews  on  the  other  side  of  the  Vistula 
would  be  untouched  by  it.  Since  then,  however,  a 
revolution  has  taken  place  in  Russia,  and  with  it  comes 
the  glaring  revelation  of  the  ardour  with  which  the 
Russian  Jew  throws  in  his  lot  with  that  of  the  land  of 
his  birth,  and  how  readily  the  intellectual  Jew,  in  par- 
ticular, sacrifices  his  Judaism  to  plunge  headlong  into 
the  vortex  of  Russian  life.  Thus  here,  too,  we  see 
disruption  seizing  on  the  great  mass  of  East  European 
Jews  and  threatening  to  undermine  the  last  bulwark 
of  Judaism. 

Many  circumstances  conspire  to  forward  the  move- 
ment.    The  progressive  development  of  trade  among 


4  THE  JEWS   OF  TO-DAY 

Christians  has  deprived  the  Jews  of  any  claim  to  a 
special  calling  even  in  those  branches  of  commerce 
which  used  to  be  almost  exclusively  in  their  hands. 
Similarly,  as  soon  as  Jews  attend  the  same  schools  as 
Christians — instead  of  exclusively  Jewish  ones,  as 
formerly — they  tend  to  lose  their  specific  culture.  And 
on  the  other  hand,  the  growing  disregard  for  any  kind 
of  traditional  religion,  the  supplanting  of  Yiddish 
(Jargon)  by  Russian,  German,  and  English,  and  the 
immense  emigration  from  Eastern  Europe  to  America 
— all  these  have  conspired  to  loosen  the  ties  which  for- 
merly bound  every  individual  Jew  to  his  community. 
So  the  gulf  between  Jew  and  Christian  is  bridged,  and 
it  is  difficult  for  Jews  to  resist  going  right  over  to 
Christianity  by  the  path  of  conversion  and  inter- 
marriage, thereby  securing  for  themselves,  or  at  least 
for  their  children,  all  the  advantages  which  in  every 
country  accompany  conformity  to  the  prevailing 
religion. 

B.  The  social  life  of  the  Jews  before  their  emancipation. 
In  the  seventeenth  and  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  centuries,  no  one  could  have  conceived 
such  a  development.  The  Jews  were  then  shut  in 
their  Ghettos,  confined  to  a  few  mean  and  despic- 
able trades,  and  far  removed  from  Christian  culture. 
It  seemed  unthinkable  that  they  should  step  out  of 
their  narrow  circle,  and  work  side  by  side  with  Chris- 
tians for  a  common  culture.  The  intellectual  life  of 
the  Jews  was  then  limited  to  the  study  of  the  Bible  and 
Talmud.  These  studies,  principally  encouraged  in 
the  Talmudic  schools  in  Poland,  were  not  primarily 
directed  to  finding  out  the  spirit  of  these  books. 
They  made   of    the   text   of    the    Bible    a    palaestra 


JEWISH   ASSIMILATION  5 

for  interpretations  which,  though  clever,  were  hair- 
splitting and  fantastic  ;  nor  did  the  Talmud,  upon 
which  they  piled  commentary  upon  commentary,  and 
supercommentary  upon  supercommentary,  fare  much 
better.  By  the  side  of  these  flourished  the  "  Kabbala," 
which  in  its  most  important  book,  the  Zohar  professed 
to  have  revealed  the  key  to  all  wisdom,  and  to  be  able 
thereby  to  dispense  with  all  other  knowledge.  The 
innumerable  ritual  ceremonies  were  slavishly  followed 
and  made  the  pivot  of  daily  life.  Nothing  gives  us  a 
clearer  insight  into  the  mental  attitude  of  the  Jews  of 
that  period,  than  that  event  which  moved  the  whole 
of  seventeenth  century  Jewry  to  its  very  depths — the 
appearance  of  the  Messiah,  Sabbatai  Zevi,  and  the  sub- 
sequent cult  of  Sabbataism  in  the  eighteenth  century 
led  by  Nehemiah  Chija  Chajon  and  other  less  scrupulous 
adventurers.  On  the  same  level  was  the  quarrel 
between  Emden  and  Eybenschutz  in  Hamburg  (1750- 
1756) — a  quarrel  which  raised  the  passions  of  Jews  all 
over  Europe  to  boiling  point — raising  the  question 
whether  or  not  the  life-saving  amulets  sold  to  mid- 
wives  by  Rabbi  Eybenschutz  contained  the  name 
of  Sabbatai  Zevi  in  their  formula.  Such  was  the 
intellectual  standard  of  Jewry  in  the  eighteenth 
century.1 

C.  The  emancipation  of  the  Jews. 

If  we  are  to  believe  the  statements  made  in  several 
Jewish  histories,  the  revolution  in  the  social  and  cul- 
tural status  of  the  Jews  must  be  ascribed  solely  to  the 
fact  that  Moses  Mendelssohn  happened  to  be  born  in 

1  An  account  of  this  quarrel  appears  in  the  Acts  of  the  Hamburg 
State  Archives  under  the  title  "  Mitteilungen  der  Gesellschaft  fur 
jiidische  Volkskunde,"  bk.  xii.  p.  89  (Hamburg,  1903). 


6  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

1729,  that  he  came  to  Berlin  in  1743,  that  he  there 
became  the  friend  of  Lessing,  translated  the  Bible  into 
German,  and  wrote  a  number  of  important  philosophical 
works.1  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  such  a  view 
reveals  a  puerile  attitude  to  history.  The  real  cause 
of  the  so-called  emancipation  of  the  Jews  is  not  to  be 
found  in  the  achievements  of  any  single  Jew,  but  in 
the  sudden  change  of  outlook,  social  and  economic, 
which  characterised  the  whole  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

The  development  of  commerce  and  industry,  which 
then  finally  shook  off  the  fetters  of  the  mediaeval 
corporations  by  taking  on  an  individualist  and  capitalist 
character,  brought  Christians  and  Jews  into  contact 
with  one  another.  Not  only  were  Jews  and  Christians 
associated  in  great  business  enterprises,  but  the  Jewish 
profession  of  money-lending  suddenly  lost  its  unpleasant 
savour.  Whereas  the  Jew  had  formerly  only  been 
able  to  sustain  the  credit  of  the  consumer,  and  was 
thus  condemned  to  the  calling  of  a  usurer,  he  now 
found  himself  in  a  position,  by  assisting  the  credit  of 
the  producer,  to  become  a  valuable  aid  to  business  men, 

1  It  may  be  said  at  once  that  Mendelssohn's  contributions  to 
Jewish  literature  are  surrounded  by  a  halo  which  would  surprise 
none  more  than  their  modest  author  himself,  were  he  here  now  to 
witness  it.  Mendelssohn,  to  whose  mind  and  character  all  homage 
is  due,  was  nevertheless  no  great  philosopher  ;  he  walked  in  the 
well-worn  paths  of  Wolff's  philosophy,  and  cannot  be  mentioned 
in  the  same  breath  with  Kant;  much  less  compared  to  him.  His 
attitude  to  Judaism  is  anything  but  logical.  His  great  achievement 
for  Jewish  emancipation  was  the  translation  of  the  Pentateuch, 
which,  by  bringing  German  Jews  into  touch  with  the  pure  German 
language,  gave  them  access  to  German  literature  and  culture. 
But  can  this — 250  years  after  Luther — justify  making  a  hero  of 
him  ?  Bernfeld  was  right  {Jews  and  Judaism  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  Berlin,  1898)  in  denouncing  the  exaggeration  of  Moses 
Mendelssohn's  share  in  the  emancipation  of  the  Jews. 


JEWISH  ASSIMILATION  7 

and    a    promoter    of    industries    which    required    his 
capital. 

The    change    in    their    economic    condition    had    a 
rapid  effect  on  the  social  status  of  the  Jews.     The 
French  philosophers  of  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  had  proclaimed  the  equality  of  men,  and  when 
these  ideas  became  embodied  in  laws,  the  yoke  of  the 
Jews  was  correspondingly  lightened.     They  gained  at 
once  greater  freedom  for  participation  in  commercial 
life,    and    a    rise    of    status ;    and    in    proportion    as 
trade  and  industry  took  on  greater  importance  in  the 
European  States,  and  the  citizen  class  gradually  sup- 
planted the  aristocratic,  so  the  Jews  advanced  in  the 
social  scale.     Breach  after  breach  was  thus  made  in 
that  wall  which  separated  Christian  from  Jew  ;  through 
personal    intercourse    with    Christians    the    way    was 
opened   into   the   great   Christian   world   of   thought. 
Jews  began  to  read  German  and  French  books,  etc., 
and  their  newly  acquired  culture  influenced  them  so 
strongly — in  Germany  and  Western  Europe,  at  least 
— that    in    less    than    fifty    years     they    completely 
abandoned  Yiddish  (the  so-called   Jargon)   in   favour 
of  the  pure  language  of  the  country,  and  approached 
as  nearly  as  possible  to  the  Christians  in  dress  and 
customs.     From    this    to    complete    renunciation    of 
Judaism   was   but    a    step.     At   first,   indeed,   before 
the   final   abandonment   of  Judaism,  many  attempts 
were  made  to  reconcile  it  with  the  Christian  world 
of   thought.     But    this   world   of    thought   was    that 
of    the    French    and    German    freethinkers    (Voltaire, 
Holbach,    Lamettrie,    Diderot,    Wolff,    Lessing,    Rei- 
marus),    which,    with    its    championship    of    atheism 
and  extreme  materialism  (in  France),  its  glorification 
of    reason,   its   demand    for  a  rationalistic  basis  for 


8  THE   JEWS   OF  TO-DAY 

everything,  its  ardour  for  science,  and  its  antagonism  to 
metaphysics  and  any  positive  religion,  stood  in  direct 
opposition  to  the  contemporary  spirit  of  Judaism. 
Many  a  Jew  must  have  been  torn  between  conflicting 
impulses  in  hours  of  doubt. 

But  from  this  impasse  the  Jewish  religion  rarely 
emerged  triumphant ;  according  to  the  education  and 
character  of  each  individual  Jew,  some  gave  it  up 
entirely  in  favour  of  the  new  knowledge,  while  others, 
through  a  more  or  less  contradictory  compromise, 
sought  to  bring  it  into  outward  harmony  with  prevail- 
ing thought.  Mendelssohn  belonged  to  the  latter 
section.  He  adhered  to  the  ceremonial  law,  and 
though  he  admitted  in  his  open  letter  to  Lavater  that 
"  he  found  many  accretions  and  abuses  in  Judaism 
which  obscured  much  of  its  lustre,"  though  he  declared 
emphatically 1  "  I  recognise  no  other  eternal  truths 
than  those  which  cannot  only  be  conceived  by  human 
reason,  but  can  be  demonstrated  and  verified  by  human 
experience "  ;  nevertheless  he  comes  finally  to  a 
glorification  of  the  Jewish  Law  :  "  What  is  ordained 
by  Divine  Law  cannot  be  set  aside  by  the  no  less 
Divine  Reason,"  2  and  he  ends  by  the  following  appeal 
to  his  co-religionists  :  "  We  are  allowed  to  meditate 
on  the  Law,  to  fathom  its  spirit ;  here  and  there  to 
assign  a  reason  where  no  reason  is  given  by  the  Law- 
giver for  enactments  made  for  a  specific  time  and 
place,  and  which  different  times  and  circumstances 
necessitate  changing — if  it  should  please  the  greatest 
Lawgiver  to  make  His  will  known  to  us  with  the  same 
irrefutable  truth  and  infallible  directness,  with  no 
room  for  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  as  He  revealed  the 

1  Jerusalem,  Complete  Works,  p.  256  (Vienna,  1838). 

2  Loc.  cit.  285. 


JEWISH  ASSIMILATION  9 

Law  itself  to  us.  When  this  is  not  the  case,  when  we 
can  point  to  no  such  authority  for  setting  aside  the 
Law,  then  our  petty  reasoning  is  not  sufficient  to 
release  us  from  the  rigid  obedience  the  Law  demands, 
and  the  fear  of  God  sets  a  boundary  between  specula- 
tion and  practice  which  no  conscientious  man  may 
override/'  1 

It  is  not  surprising  that  Bruno  Bauer  should  ridicule  2 
this  parody  of  the  sovereignty  of  Reason  ;  still  less 
surprising  to  find  that  such  an  illogical  position  could 
nowhere  find  acceptance.  Everyone  knows  that  Men- 
delssohn's own  children  threw  their  father's  doctrines 
to  the  winds,  cut  themselves  free  of  all  the  ordinances 
of  the  Jewish  religion,  and  finally  became  converts  to 
Christianity.  In  a  letter  from  the  famous  etcher 
Chodowiecki  to  the  Countess  von  Solms-Laubach,3 
dated  December  12th,  1783,  we  read  that  the  Jews  of 
Berlin  are  no  longer  concerned  with  any  kind  of  ritual, 
they  buy  and  sell  on  Saturdays,  eat  all  the  forbidden 
foods,  keep  no  fast  days,  etc.  ;  only  the  lower  classes 
(that  is,  those  still  untouched  by  German  culture)  are 
still  orthodox. 

The  theories  of  enlightenment,  originally  directed 
against  Christianity,  proved  to  be  much  less  destructive 
of  Christianity  than  of  Judaism.  The  Christian,  while 
theoretically  convinced  of  the  untruth  of  the  Christian 
dogmas,  could  still  remain  a  Christian  ;  Christianity 
imposed  no  special  mark  of  peculiarity  upon  him,  he 
was  to  a  certain  extent  Christian  without  knowing  it ; 
his  Christianity  did  not  disturb  him.  It'  was  other- 
wise with  the  Jew,  the  adherent  of  the  religion  of  a 

1  Loc.  cit.  287. 

2  Die  Judenfrage,  p.  83  (Braunschweig,  1843). 

3  Reprinted  in  Ost  und  West,  December,  1903,  p.  832. 


io  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

minority.  Every  way  he  turned  he  was  constantly 
reminded  of  the  exceptional  position  his  religion  placed 
him  in  ;  unlike  the  Christian  he  could  not  rid  himself 
of  it  by  disregarding  its  dogmas  and  rites,  to  set  him- 
self absolutely  free  he  had  to  perform  an  external  act. 
This  act  was  conversion,  and  the  cultured  Jews  of 
Berlin  were  not  slow  in  availing  themselves  of  it  to 
its  full  extent. 

D.  The  disintegration  of  Judaism  by  the  adoption  of 
modern  education. 
Berlin  was  the  centre  of  Jewish  enlightenment,  and 
presented  the  most  vivid  spectacle  of  the  loosening  of 
the  bonds  of  Judaism;  yet  similar  phenomena  were 
everywhere  apparent,  as  the  recognised  social  status 
of  the  Jews  improved,  and  they  were  able  to  take 
advantage  of  Christian  culture — that  is  to  say,  all  over 
Central  and  Western  Europe.  Hitherto  a  well-defined 
nation,  characterised  by  a  specific  language,  religion, 
education  and  customs,  they  now,  by  denuding  them- 
selves of  all  peculiarities,  became  completely  denation- 
alised. As  in  chemistry  a  compound  is  dissolved  into 
its  elements  under  the  influence  of  fermentation,  and 
these  elements  unite  again  in  a  new  compound,  so 
modern  culture,  working  on  the  old  homogeneous 
Ghetto- Judaism  as  a  ferment,  brought  about  denation- 
alisation, which,  beginning  with  the  splitting  up  of 
Judaism  into  several  different  grades  of  culture, 
culminates  in  the  union  of  the  highest  culture  with 
Christianity.  The  Jews  did  make  some  effort  to  stem 
the  stream ;  in  Mendelssohn's  time  the  orthodox 
section  were  at  great  pains  to  check  the  circulation  of 
his  translation  of  the  Pentateuch,  to  declare  his 
writings  heretical,  and  to  warn  the  Berlin  community 


JEWISH  ASSIMILATION  n 

of  this  dangerous  spirit.  When  this  failed,  and  clear- 
sighted Jews  realised  that  the  cause  of  orthodox 
Judaism  was  irreparably  lost  in  Germany,  they  tried 
to  save  what  still  remained,  though  with  questionable 
success,  by  reforming  the  service,  making  it  more 
up-to-date  (in  1818  the  first  Reform  Synagogue  was 
opened  in  Hamburg,  with  an  organ,  a  sermon  in 
German,  and  a  revised  Prayerbook) ,  and  by  modifying 
the  ritual.  If  Reform  Judaism  has  proved  a  refuge 
for  many  Jews  who  are  deterred  from  baptism,  for 
many  more  it  has  proved  but  a  halfway  house  from 
Judaism  to  Christianity. 

If  we  survey  the  whole  of  Jewry  as  it  has  emerged 
from  the  last  century-and-a-half  of  disintegration,  we 
can  distinguish  four  classes  : 

1.  First  we  have  the  great  mass  of  Jews,  hitherto, 
or  until  very  recently,  untouched  by  modern  culture, 
and  therefore  on  the  same  plane  of  thought  as  those  we 
have  described  as  characteristic  of  the  period  of  1750. 
To  these  belong  the  great  majority  of  Jews  in  Russia 
and  Galicia,  the  native  Jews  of  Morocco,  Asia,  and 
European  Turkey.  They  have  their  own  colloquial 
language  called  Yiddish  or  Jargon,  or  Spaniolisch  (a 
corrupt  Spanish)  in  Turkey  and  North  Africa,  and 
their  literature  is  entirely  written  in  this  language  and 
in  Hebrew.  They  keep  themselves  as  a  nation  apart, 
wear  a  peculiar  costume  (the  Ashkenazim,  in  particular, 
cultivating  side-locks  when  not  forbidden  by  law),  live 
for  the  most  part  under  the  old  Jewish  Law  which  is 
expounded  by  their  Rabbis ;  and  disparaging  pro- 
fane learning,  rely  for  their  culture  on  ancient  Jewish 
literature,  knowledge  of  which  they  acquire  from  their 
earliest  childhood  in  the  Cheders  (religious  elementary 
schools).     They  are  for  the  most  part  small  traders 


12  THE   JEWS   OF  TO-DAY 

(pedlars),  artisans,  and  agents,  and  are  miserably  poor. 
Their  birth-rate  is  very  high,  families  of  ten  children 
or  more  being  nothing  unusual.  Numerically  this 
class  is  still  the  biggest  in  Jewry  ;  about  six  millions, 
that  is,  one  half  of  the  nation,  belonging  to  it. 

2.  The  second  class  has  been  influenced  by  modern 
culture,  and  speaks  the  language  of  the  country,  and 
sometimes  Jargon  as  well.  It  has  relinquished  its 
strange  apparel  (and  also  the  side-locks),  and  dresses 
in  Christian  manner.  The  Jewish  ritual  is  adhered 
to — modified  in  some  cases,  like  that  of  the  Sabbath 
Laws,  when  their  observance  demands  too  great  a 
sacrifice  :  there  is  much  less  intolerance  of  all  things 
non- Jewish,  imitation  of  Christian  manners  and  interest 
in  non- Jewish  literature  being  no  longer  denounced  or 
despised.  The  children  attend  Jewish  elementary 
schools  by  preference,  and  there  receive  elementary 
secular  education  along  with  religious  teaching.  The 
families  are  large,  though  not  so  large  as  those  of  the 
first  class.  The  members  of  this  second  class  have  an 
income  just  sufficient  for  their  wants ;  some  are 
moderately  well-to-do.  They  include  the  Russian  and 
Galician  Jews  who  have  emigrated  to  England  and 
America,  the  Jews  of  Algiers  and  the  Christian  Balkan 
States,  the  lower  classes  of  the  Jewish  population  of 
Holland,  and  the  Jews  of  the  small  towns  of  Austria 
(always  excepting  Galicia),  Hungary,  Eastern  Germany, 
and  Alsace  Lorraine.  Their  total  may  be  roughly 
estimated  at  three  millions. 

3.  The  third  class  almost  entirely  ignores  Jewish 
ritual,  particularly  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  ; 
speaks  exclusively  the  language  of  the  country,  is 
educated  in  the  public  schools,  and  no  longer  concerns 
itself  with  Jewish  literature.     Its  adherence  to  Judaism 


JEWISH  ASSIMILATION  13 

consists  only  in  its  members  marrying  within  the  faith, 
the  circumcision  of  the  sons,  and  occasional  attendance 
at  Synagogue  (usually  limited  to  two  or  three  festival 
days).  This  class,  mostly  business  men  who  live  in 
comfortable  circumstances  and  have  small  families, 
includes  the  so-called  Jewish  bourgeoisie  in  Germany, 
England,  the  Colonies,  Italy,  France,  Holland, 
America,  and  the  large  towns  of  Austria-Hungary 
(again  excluding  Galicia).  They  number  about  two 
millions. 

4.  The  fourth  class  has  completely  broken  away  from 
Judaism,  and  remains  Jewish  only  because — either  out 
of  conscientiousness  or  a  sense  of  honour,  or  out  of 
family  and  social  considerations — it  hesitates  to  take 
the  decisive  step  of  marriage  with  Christians.  Inter- 
marriage and  child-baptism  are  frequent — two  children 
in  a  family  is  the  rule.  To  this  class  belong  the  rich 
Jews  of  the  large  towns,  and  Jews  of  University 
education  all  the  world  over.  They  total  about  one 
million. 

We  have  roughly  indicated  four  classes,  and  have 
for  easier  reference,  tabulated  their  chief  characteristics 
in  an  appended  table.  They  must  on  no  account  be 
taken  for  definite,  rigidly  marked  groups,  but  are 
simply  landmarks  in  an  ever-flowing  stream,  which, 
constantly  replenished  from  the  great  reservoirs  of 
Jewish  orthodoxy  in  Eastern  Europe,  finds  a  final 
outlet  in  Christianity. 

In  proportion  as  the  Jews  become  penetrated  with 
modern  culture,  so  they  become  denationalised,  and 
orthodox  Judaism  (the  first  section)  supplies  the  liberal 
class  (the  second  section),  this  the  free- thinking  (the 
third  section),  and  this  again  the  Jews  in  name  only 
(the  fourth  section),  until  we  are  finally  led  up,  through 


i4  THE   JEWS   OF  TO-DAY 

conversion  and  intermarriage,  to  the  Christianised  type 
itself. 

It  is  very  rare  indeed  that  a  Jew  belonging  by 
upbringing  and  education  to  the  first  or  second  sections 
becomes  baptised.  A  certain  time  must  elapse  before 
he  can  throw  off  the  influence  of  his  orthodox- Jewish 
milieu,  and  the  altered  conditions  and  impressions  of 
his  later  life  do  not,  as  a  rule,  outweigh  the  influence 
of  the  orthodox  Judaism  of  his  youth.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  may  quite  well  take  the  four  sections  as 
representing  four  succeeding  generations,  though  in 
point  of  fact  the  distance  between  orthodoxy  and  con- 
version is  frequently  covered  in  three  and  sometimes 
two  generations.  We  are  four  or  five  generations 
removed  from  the  times  of  Moses  Mendelssohn.  Of  all 
the  Jews  who  lived  at  that  time  in  Berlin,  hardly  one 
has  a  Jewish  descendant  to-day ;  they  have  all  gone 
over  to  Christianity.  On  the  other  hand,  the  rich 
Jews  of  present-day  Berlin — those  whom  we  class 
among  the  fourth  section,  and  whose  children  are  for 
the  most  part  baptised  in  their  cradles,  or  likely  to 
become  so  later— are  descendants  of  rigidly  orthodox 
Jews,  who  two  or  three  generations  back,  left  their 
small  native  towns  in  the  East  Prussian  provinces  or 
just  over  the  frontier,  to  emigrate  to  Berlin.  To  any- 
one who  has  studied  the  conditions  of  Jews  in  the 
large  European  towns,  this  process  is  as  familiar  as  it 
is  clear. 


JEWISH   ASSIMILATION 


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16  THE   JEWS   OF  TO-DAY 

E.  Analogous  assimilative  movements  of  the  Jews  in  the 
epochs  of  Greek  and  Arabic  culture. 

The  breaking-up  of  Judaism,  of  which  we  of  the 
present  day  are  witnesses,  is  by  no  means  without 
precedent  in  its  history.  On  the  contrary,  we  see  the 
very  same  thing  happening  on  both  the  previous 
occasions  when  Judaism  came  under  the  influence  of 
foreign  culture — in  the  Greek  period  two  centuries 
before  and  one  century  after  Christ ;  and  in  the  Arabic 
period,  from  the  eighth  to  the  twelfth  century  a.d. 

While  the  Jewish  State  was  still  in  existence,  the 
great  party  of  Sadducees — similar  to  the  Reformers  of 
the  nineteenth  century — repudiated  the  "  tradition  " 
(i.e.  the  endless  number  of  ritual  ceremonies)  on 
account  of  their  Greek  sympathies.  Grecian  gym- 
nastics were  practised  in  Jerusalem,  and  Jewish  youths 
were  so  ashamed  of  their  nationality  that  they  actually 
submitted  to  a  painful  operation  in  order  to  remove 
all  traces  of  circumcision,  so  that  they  should  not  be 
recognised  as  Jews  in  the  Gymnasia.  The  Greek 
language  was  substituted  for  Hebrew  and  Aramaic, 
and  Greek  for  Hebrew  names.  Philo,  the  leader  of  the 
Hellenising  party,  wrote  his  books  in  Greek  ;  with  the 
aim  of  defending  Judaism  against  the  attacks  of 
paganism,  he  divested  it  of  individuality  and  repre- 
sented it  as  merely  an  offshoot  of  Greek  philosophy. 
He  thereby  prepared  the  way  for  the  triumphant  pro- 
gress of  Christianity.  The  one  million  Jews  who  lived 
in  Egypt— the  centre  of  Hellenic  culture  in  the  first 
century, — became  so  utterly  merged  into  Paganism  and 
Christianity  that  in  the  following  century  we  hardly 
hear  of  the  existence  of  Jews  in  Egypt  at  all.  It  was 
only  in  distant  Babylon,  whither  a  great  portion  of 


JEWISH  ASSIMILATION  17 

Palestine  Jews  had  migrated,  and  where  they  main- 
tained, through  their  separatist  organisation  as  exiles, 
a  certain  measure  of  autonomy,  that  the  Jews  dis- 
played their  "  will  to  live,"  and,  through  the  compila- 
tion of  the  Talmud,  raised  the  Law  to  its  sovereign 
authority. 

Another  wave  passed  over  Jewry  under  the  influence 
of  Arabic  culture.  In  the  eighth  century  there  arose 
the  great  party  of  Karaites — probably  an  off-shoot  of 
the  Jewish-Arabian  colony  in  Syria — who  repudiated 
the  whole  Talmud,  of  which  the  Jews  were  so  proud, 
and  recognised  no  authority  but  that  of  the  Bible.  We 
must  not  estimate  the  strength  of  the  Karaites  by  their 
miserable  descendants  of  to-day.  At  the  time  of  their 
foundation  they  constituted  a  danger  which  threatened 
the  continued  existence  of  Judaism,  and  were  at  least 
the  equals  in  strength  of  the  Talmud  Jews.  Karaism 
failed  because  it  set  up  a  new  ritual  of  its  own,  prac- 
tically a  new  Talmud,  and  thus  nullified  its  very 
raison  d'etre — antagonism  to  the  superabundance  of 
ritual,  and  to  the  exclusiveness  of  Rabbinic  Judaism. 

The  influence  of  a  Mohammedan  environment  was  no 
less  strong  on  the  Jews  of  North  Africa  and  Spain  than 
on  those  of  Syria.  Jewish  literature,  hitherto  con- 
cerned with  the  revision  and  interpretation  of  the 
Talmud,  took  on  an  absolutely  different  character. 
The  famous  Saadiah  ben  Joseph  (892-942),  the  real 
founder  of  Jewish  philosophy,  is  far  removed  from 
those  who  studied  only  the  letter  of  the  Law  ;  his 
works  form  a  philosophy  of  religion  ;  he  translated 
the  Bible  into  Arabic,  and  set  himself  the  task  of 
reconciling  tradition  with  the  demands  of  reason  and 
of  altered  social  conditions,  in  a  manner  which  is 
strikingly  similar  to  the  work  of  Moses  Mendelssohn, 


18  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

nine  centuries  later.  In  the  tenth  century  we  find 
Jews  in  North  Africa  and  Spain  criticising  the  Talmud, 
the  Bible,  the  doctrine  of  revealed  religion,  till  we  even 
get  Unbelief  exalted  into  a  principle — the  last,  cer- 
tainly, under  the  influence  of  the  Arabic  philosophy  of 
the  Mutazilites,  then  in  vogue.  Something  of  this  new 
spirit  penetrated  even  into  Babylon,  where  we  have  a 
Gaon  of  the  College  of  Sura,  Samuel  ben  Chofni  Hakohen 
(960-1034)  declaring  "  That  anything  opposed  to  reason 
need  not  be  accepted." 

The  great  men  of  this  period — a  Salomon  ibn  Gebirol, 
a  Maimonides — are  not  Jewish  in  teaching,  but  draw 
their  wisdom  from  the  newly  discovered  writings  of 
the  Greek  philosophers.  Samuel  David  Luzzatto  in 
the  nineteenth  century  had  his  reasons  for  calling  the 
doctrine  of  Maimonides  un- Jewish,  and  the  contem- 
poraries of  Maimonides  in  France  and  Germany,  who 
still  held  fast  by  the  tradition,  had  reason  also  to  be 
horrified  at  this  enlightened  Spanish  Jew  who  was  so 
loudly  acclaimed.  "  They  dreaded  the  destructive 
force  of  this  foreign  wisdom,  and  opposed  it  for  hun- 
dreds of  years  with  increasing  bitterness.' '  1  But  they 
struggled  in  vain.  Even  if  the  Talmudists  of  other 
countries  were  successful  in  enforcing  their  decree 
that  "  no  Jew  under  thirty  should  read  Maimonides," 
in  Spain  it  was  all  over  with  the  old  Jewish  tradition, 
which,  indeed,  has  never  been  able  to  recover  lost 
ground. 

As  soon  as  the  Jews  had  laid  hold  of  this  culture — 
this  Arabic-Spanish  philosophy  which  was  founded  on 
the  Hellenistic — the  way  was  clear  to  complete  assimila- 
tion.    Already  under  the  rule  of  Islam,  conversion  and 

1  M.  Braun,  History  of  the  Jews  and  their  Literature  (Breslau, 
1899). 


JEWISH   ASSIMILATION  19 

intermarriage  were  of  no  rare  occurrence,  and  when,  in 
the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  Christianity 
triumphed  in  Spain,  the  Jews  went  over  to  it  in 
multitudes.  The  fact  that  in  the  year  1492,  when 
confronted  with  a  choice  between  baptism  and  exile, 
so  many  Jews  chose  exile,  cannot  be  put  down  to 
strength  of  any  religious  belief  :  under  similar  pressure, 
the  most  enlightened  Western  Jews  of  to-day,  who 
have  no  sort  of  connection  with  Jewish  religion  as 
such,  would  probably  act  in  exactly  the  same  way. 
Just  such  ruthless  measures  were  needed  to  stiffen  the 
backs  of  the  vacillators  ;  and  it  is  hardly  too  much  to 
say  that  the  Jews  in  Spain  would  in  a  very  short  time 
have  been  lost  to  Judaism  if  they  had  not  been  forced 
back  into  it  through  persecution.  These  periods  of 
assimilation  in  Hellenistic  and  Moorish  times  are  not 
isolated  phenomena  ;  they  are  but  the  visible  culmina- 
tion of  a  movement  which  has  always  undermined 
Jewry  in  the  Diaspora.  Even  in  the  times  when  the 
Jews  lived  in  their  Ghettos  under  most  terrible  oppres- 
sion, and  were  cut  off  as  a  community  from  all  contact 
with  Christian  culture,  we  see  to  our  astonishment, 
individual  Jews  (either  baptised  or  very  nearly  so)  in 
the  courts  of  princes  and  bishops  in  high  positions,  or 
else  like  Spinoza,  leading  progressive  thought.  The 
yellow  badge  which  the  Jews  of  the  Middle  Ages  were 
forced  to  wear,  and  which  every  Jewish  history  speaks 
of  as  the  greatest  disgrace,  was  not  introduced  merely  as 
a  badge  of  dishonour  ;  it  was  designed  rather  to  make 
it  impossible  for  Jews  to  mix  unrecognised  with 
Christians,  and  to  deport  themselves  as  Christians.  It 
shows  us  that  even  in  the  time  of  their  greatest  degrada- 
tion many  Jews  sought  to  fuse  themselves  with  the 
Christian  majority.     We  may  read  Jewish  history  in 


20  THE  JEWS   OF  TO-DAY 

the  Diaspora  as  one  long  battle  between,  on  the  one 
hand,  the  ideals  of  isolation  and  race  purity,  implanted 
into  the  Jewish  people  by  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  and 
ever  since  the  corner-stone  of  their  religion  ;  and  on  the 
other,  the  tendency  to  assimilate  ;  and  we  shall  find 
it  a  useful  clue  to  the  right  understanding  of  that 
history.  So  long  as  the  Jews  live  together,  as  in 
Babylon,  in  a  large  compact  body  with  a  higher  state 
of  culture  than  the  surrounding  non- Jewish  majority, 
assimilation  is  nothing  more  than  a  tiny  stream  which 
draws  few  into  its  current ;  but  this  stream  becomes 
a  torrent,  carrying  everything  before  it  as  soon  as 
the  culture  of  the  non- Jewish  majority  is  raised,  and 
the  Jews  are  scattered  in  small  groups  among  that 
majority  without  having  to  struggle  for  their  daily 
bread. 

How  great  the  losses  suffered  by  Judaism  through 
assimilation  have  been,  may  be  appreciated  by  the 
fact  that  the  Jews  number  to-day  only  twelve  million 
souls,  while  in  the  first  century  a.d.  they  numbered 
five  million.  Even  allowing  for  the  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  who  succumbed  to  persecution, 
Judaism  to-day  should  be  stronger  than  it  is  by 
millions  and  tens  of  millions,  were  it  not  for  the  con- 
tinuous secession  to  Christianity.1 

F.  The  assimilation  of  minor  nationalities — a  common 
social  phenomenon. 
The  similarity  between  the  assimilative  movements 
of  Greek  and  Moorish  times  and  that  of  our  own  day 

1  "  It  is  generally  admitted  that  but  for  the  secession  of  thousands 
of  its  sons  in  every  generation  to  Christianity,  Judaism  would 
number  4  or  5,  perhaps  even  10  times  the  total  of  its  adherents," 
Leroy-Beaulieu,  Jews  and  Anti-Semitism. 


JEWISH  ASSIMILATION  21 

is  obvious.  By  comparing  the  three  epochs  we  shall 
arrive  at  an  understanding  of  their  common  causes  and 
effects,  and  shall  be  able  to  deduce  a  general  principle 
in  Jewish  assimilation.  This  principle  lays  down  that 
the  rate  of  assimilation  is  higher — 

(a)  The  smaller  the  percentage  of  Jews  in  compari- 
son with  the  non- Jewish  population  of  their  immediate 
environment. 

(b)  The  livelier  the  economic  intercourse  between 
Jew  and  non- Jew. 

(c)  The  higher  the  standard  of  non- Jewish  culture. 

(d)  The  greater  the  wealth  of  the  Jews. 

This  is  incontestably  established  by  historical 
facts ;  and  the  causes  are  not  far  to  seek.  They  are 
the  same  causes  which  everywhere  bring  about  the 
same  result  :  namely,  that  minor  nationalities — unless 
they  come  like  the  Manchus  in  China,  as  conquerors, 
and  retain  their  power  as  ruling  caste  by  military 
prowess  and  organisation — tend  always  to  gravitate 
towards  the  national  majority. 

Man  is  a  social  animal ;  to  satisfy  his  needs  he  must 
come  into  touch  with  his  fellow-man,  and  thus  set  up 
any  number  of  new  relations  with  them.  In  the  first 
place,  there  are  economic  relations  :  they  are  the  most 
important  and  far-reaching,  since  everyone  is  subject 
to  them  in  order  to  secure,  by  means  of  exchange,  those 
necessaries  of  life  which  he  cannot  produce.  In  a 
peaceful  community,  where  the  Law  of  Might  holds 
no  sway,  the  better  a  man  gets  on  with  his  fellows  the 
more  likely  he  is  to  achieve  his  aim,  the  satisfaction 
of  his  immediate  wants.  To  this  end  he  requires  not 
only  a  common  language,  but  capacity  to  observe  and 
enter  into  the  life  of  others.  Classes  whose  calling 
precludes  them  from  actually  producing  any  of  the 


22  THE   JEWS   OF  TO-DAY 

necessaries  of  life,  who  rely  on  exchange  in  order  to 
earn  their  daily  bread,  and  have  to  seek  customers  for 
their  wares,  these  classes  are  most  liable  to  be  assimi- 
lated. They  are  for  the  most  part  merchants  and 
business  men.  The  peasant  is,  in  comparison,  far 
more  independent ;  he  is  able,  especially  in  the  early 
stages  of  development,  to  provide  for  himself,  to 
satisfy  the  needs  of  his  household  by  the  work  of  his 
hands.  We  see  the  Germans  in  the  United  States 
being  assimilated  very  quickly,  whereas  in  Brazil, 
Transylvania  and  Russia,  the  process  is  very  slow  ;  this 
must  be  put  down  not  so  much  to  the  higher  state  of 
culture  in  the  United  States,  as  to  the  fact  that  whereas 
the  Germans  there  are  merchants  and  business  men, 
in  Brazil,  Transylvania  and  Russia  they  are  peasants 
and  husbandmen.  For  similar  reasons,  the  Jewish 
pedlar  or  artisan  who  emigrates  from  Eastern  Europe 
to  Germany  or  America  is  not  only  forced  to  give  up 
Jargon  and  adopt  the  German  or  English  language,  he 
must  also  adapt  himself  to  the  manners  and  customs  of 
his  new  country.  In  the  early  stages  this  is  confined 
to  imitation  of  outward  forms  of  intercourse,  deport- 
ment, dress,  etc.,  whereas  at  a  more  advanced  stage 
it  becomes  complete  identification  with  the  German  or 
American  outlook,  habits  and  culture. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  so  long  as  the  Jews  were  econo- 
mically in  touch  with  the  Christians  as  merchants  and 
bankers,  they  spoke  the  language  of  their  surroundings 
and  dressed  like  Christians.  It  was  only  when  they 
were  excluded  from  the  larger  spheres  of  commerce, 
their  activity  confined  to  pawnbroking  and  peddling — 
the  inevitable  outcome  of  their  isolation  in  the  Ghettos 
and  the  simultaneous  growth  and  spread  of  the  power 
of  the  Catholic  Church — that  their  intercourse  with 


JEWISH  ASSIMILATION  23 

Christians  was  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  that  they 
ceased  to  come  into  contact  with  Christian  culture  and 
activity.  It  was  the  Ghettos  that  created  the  spirit 
of  stagnation  in  Judaism,  the  spirit  that  persisted  in 
carrying  the  language  and  costume  of  the  fourteenth 
century  into  the  eighteenth.  With  the  re-entry  of  the 
Jews  into  the  economic  life  of  recent  times,  this  stagna- 
tion has  disappeared.  Assimilation  set  in  at  once,  and 
brought  about  those  rapid  changes  which  at  one 
stroke,  transformed  the  Jews  of  what  we  have  called 
the  first  class  into  those  of  the  second,  or  even  the 
third. 

Equal  in  importance  to  the  economic  are  the  social 
relations,  which  satisfy  man's  need  of  friendly  com- 
munion, by  the  exchange  of  mutual  experiences  in  the 
realms  of  affairs  and  of  thought,  and  by  the  fostering 
of  common  ethical,  artistic  and  scientific  aspirations. 
Into  these  circles  the  individual  finds  his  way,  not 
only  by  sharing  the  common  language,  costume  and 
manners,  but  by  proving  himself  worthy  in  culture 
and  knowledge  to  come  among  them.  He  will  there- 
fore have  to  exert  himself  to  acquire  that  culture, 
and  thus  to  attain  to  a  standard  precisely  equal  to 
that  of  his  associates.  This  is  how  our  Jews  of  the 
second  section  pass  over  into  the  third  section,  and — 
generally  a  generation  later — into  the  fourth.  The 
tendency  is  intensified  by  the  struggle  for  social  status, 
which  lays  hold  of  men  as  soon  as  they  no  longer  have 
any  need  to  struggle  for  mere  existence.  We  see  this 
most  plainly  in  the  prevalence  of  fashion  in  dress, 
which  is  simply  due  to  the  fact  that  the  lower  classes 
do  not  want  to  be  outdone  by  the  upper,  and  strive, 
as  a  beginning,  to  appear  their  equals  in  visible  outward 
things   such   as   dress.     With   the    proletariat,   which 


24  THE   JEWS   OF  TO-DAY 

still  has  to  battle  for  daily  bread,  the  fight  for  social 
status  is  not  yet  developed ;  it  grows  in  intensity  as 
the  struggle  for  gain  decreases  after  achieving  its  aim  ; 
and  it  is  typical  of  a  class  which  has  risen  to  wealth 
and  culture  from  the  most  abject  poverty.  The  Jews 
of  Western  Europe  are  just  such  a  class :  their  success 
in  business  and  in  letters  tempts  them  to  seek  position 
and  social  status  among  the  rich  bourgeoisie  and  in 
the  scholastic  world,  and  yet  as  Jews  they  are  looked 
askance  upon,  and  their  efforts  are  frustrated.  Con- 
fronted with  this  situation,  many  make  conversion  a 
means  of  wiping  out  their  last  distinctive  mark,  hoping 
thereby  to  secure,  and  often  actually  securing,  admis- 
sion as  equals  to  circles  hitherto  rigidly  closed. 

These  are  the  causes  which  lead  the  Jews — a  small 
minority  in  every  country — to  adopt  the  language, 
the  costume,  the  habits,  culture  and  finally  the 
religion  of  their  non- Jewish  surroundings,  a  compli- 
cation of  phenomena  which  we  call  the  process  of 
assimilation. 

G.  Reasons  for  the  power  of  resistance  to  assimilation 
shown  by  the  Jews  hitherto. 

It  is  certainly  remarkable  that,  in  spite  of  the  ten- 
dency to  assimilation,  there  still  remain,  after  eighteen 
centuries  a  goodly  number  of  Jews  ;  that  Judaism 
has  after  all  survived  its  most  critical  periods,  the  epochs 
of  Greek  and  Arabic  culture.  In  our  opinion  there 
are  three  causes  which  have  enabled  the  Jews  to  hold 
fast  to  the  doctrine  of  isolation  and  exclusiveness 
established  by  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  and  so  prevented 
them  from  being  absorbed  by  other  nations. 

(a)  Even  before  the  destruction  of  their  State,  the 
Jews  of  Egypt,  Syria  and  other  parts  of  the  Roman 


JEWISH   ASSIMILATION  25 

Empire,  were  principally  engaged  in  trade  and  com- 
merce, and  according  to  Sombart,1  developed  money- 
lending  into  a  fine  art.     With  the  migration  of  the 
nations  they  found  themselves  among  peoples  in  the 
most   primitive   stages   of   domestic   economy.     Upon 
these  the  Jews,  with  their  habits  of  trafficking  and 
storing  up  wealth,  produced  an  effect  as  foreign  and 
uncanny   as   the   nomad    Gypsies   of   to-day    on   the 
settled  population — be  it  noted  that  the  Gypsies,  like 
the  Jews,  have  also  hitherto  defied  assimilation.     The 
Jews  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  industrial  constitu- 
tion of  the  Christian  majority,  which  rested  on  agri- 
culture and  the  manorial  organisation  ;   and  the  latter 
being   based   on   a   traditional   grouping   of   societies 
founded  on  blood-relationship,  the  foreign  Jew  could 
never   become    a   member.     As    the    ruling  organisa- 
tions were  built  on  the  foundations  of  these  ancient 
co-operative   unions,    it   follows   that   neither   do   we 
find  a  single  Jew  exercising  any  such  function.2     Simi- 
larly the   Jews   were   excluded  from   the  guilds   and 
corporations    into   which    commerce    and   handicrafts 
were  organised  in  the  Middle  Ages,  whose  object  was 
elimination  of  all  competition,  with  a  view  to  increasing 
the  prosperity  of  the  guilds.     Sombart  has  pointed  out 
that  the  Jews  were  forced  to  be  in  constant  conflict 
with  these  guilds  and  with   the   principle  on  which 
they  were  based,  in  order  to  gain  a  livelihood. 

On  the  other  hand,  their  monopoly  of  the  business 
of  money-lending  prevented  them  to  a  certain  extent 
from  becoming  dependent  upon  Christian  custom, 
and   indeed   had   rather   the   opposite    effect.     These 

1  Die  Juden  und  das  Wirtschaftsleben  (Leipzig,  1911). 

2  O.  Bauer,  Die  Nationalitatenfrage  und  die  Sozialdemokratie,  p.  367 
(Vienna,  1907). 


26  THE   JEWS   OF  TO-DAY 

economic  and  professional  divergences  prevented  Jews 
and  Christians  from  ever  entering  into  intimate 
relations  with  one  another.  The  only  exceptions 
were  in  those  parts  of  the  Roman  Empire,  such  as 
Southern  Italy  and  Egypt,  which  were  not  affected 
by  the  migrations  to  the  extent  of  losing  all  their 
former  culture  and  the  system  of  finance  established 
under  the  old  Roman  regime.  Here  the  Jews  were 
never  so  rigidly  excluded  as  in  Central  Europe ; 
in  consequence  they  succumbed  to  assimilation  in 
masses. 

(b)  The  second  cause  for  the  survival  of  Judaism 
is,  that  in  both  periods,  just  when  their  extinction 
seemed  imminent,  great  numbers  of  Jews  were  forced 
out  of  those  countries  where  the  state  of  culture  was 
high,  and  had  to  take  refuge  in  lands  in  a  lower  state 
of  civilisation,  where  assimilation  offered  no  attraction. 
The  first  time  they  were  driven  from  Palestine  and 
Syria  to  Babylon ;  the  second  time,  from  Spain  and 
France  to  Poland  and  Turkey.  But  for  these  happy 
chances  there  would  in  all  likelihood  be  no  such  thing 
as  Judaism  to-day. 

(c)  The  great  natural  prolificness  of  the  Jewish  race 
— a  result  of  the  careful  nurture  of  the  children — 
enabled  the  Jews  to  make  good  the  losses  caused  by 
conversion.  If  only  a  remnant  withstood  assimila- 
tion, in  a  relatively  short  time  a  new  Jewry  was  born 
from  it. 

H.  The  collapse  of  the  obstructions  to  assimilation  and 

consequent  breaking-up  of  fewry. 

What  can  we  prognosticate  for  Jewry  in  the  present 

period  of  assimilation  ?     Will  a  remnant  still  remain 

to  carry  on  Judaism  even  if  the  masses  fall  away  ? 


JEWISH   ASSIMILATION  27 

Or  is  the  danger  from  assimilation  already  so  great  as 
to  give  us  cause  to  contemplate  seriously  a  total 
merging  of  the  Jews  into  Christendom  ?  Most  emphati- 
cally it  is.  The  economic  system  of  capitalistic 
finance — the  monopoly  of  the  Jews  of  the  Middle  Ages 
—has  now  become  the  common  property  of  the  whole 
world.  Any  vestige  that  may  still  remain  of  the  old 
guild  and  corporation  system  is  foredoomed  to  extinc- 
tion, and  is  disappearing  before  our  eyes.  With  it 
disappears  the  distinctive  economic  status  which 
formerly  stigmatised  Jews  and  prevented  assimilation. 
And  the  other  factors  which  contributed  to  the  pre- 
servation of  the  Jews  exist  no  longer  either.  Whereas 
formerly  the  Jews  migrated  under  stress  of  persecution 
from  countries  of  a  high  to  those  of  a  lower  culture — 
the  persecutions  thus  actually  helping  to  preserve 
Judaism — nowadays  oppression  drives  the  Jews  from 
countries  on  a  lower  plane  of  civilisation  to  those  on 
a  higher — from  dark,  unenlightened  Eastern  Europe 
to  progressive  Western  Europe  and  America,  and 
thereby  the  danger  of  assimilation  is  enormously 
increased.  Lastly,  the  natural  prolificness  of  the  Jews 
has  lately  suffered  a  relapse,  and  in  many  countries 
their  fertility  is  less  than  that  of  Christians.  So  the 
way  is  clear  to  assimilation.  It  goes  without  saying 
that  there  can  be  no  question  of  the  Jews  disappearing 
from  off  the  face  of  the  globe  in  a  few  decades.  A 
people  numbering  some  twelve  million  souls  cannot  be 
wiped  out  so  quickly  as  all  that.  It  may  be  a  hundred 
years  and  more  before  the  last  Jew  is  absorbed — the 
actual  time  is  a  minor  detail. 

What  we  are  concerned  to  know  is,  whether  the  causes 
that  have  hitherto  preserved  the  Jews  as  a  separate  com- 
munity, will  hold  good  for  the  future  and  protect  them 


28  THE   JEWS   OF  TO-DAY 

from  total  assimilation.  If  the  answer  is  in  the  negative, 
the  fate  of  the  Jews  is  sealed.  Just  as  a  tree  whose 
roots  are  rotten  will  yet  stand  a  long  time  though 
fatally  diseased,  so  also  the  Jews  can  go  on  existing  for 
some  time  to  come;  but  as  a  community  they  will 
decline  and  not  advance.  It  is  false  optimism  to 
make  light  of  this  crisis,  and  say  that  because  Judaism 
has  endured  for  two  thousand  years  in  the  face  of  the 
greatest  dangers  and  hardships,  that  therefore  it  is 
proof  against  all  happenings.  The  past  can  prove 
nothing  for  the  present,  because  present-day  condi- 
tions are  totally  different  from  what  they  have  ever 
been  before.  And  besides  this,  do  we  not  know  that 
in  the  past  the  Jewish  population  of  whole  countries 
did  become  absorbed  ?  We  have  already  spoken  of 
the  Jews  in  Egypt.  In  China  too,  where  two  centuries 
ago  numbers  of  Jews  were  settled,  there  is  no  longer 
any  trace  of  them.  Where  are  the  great  Jewish 
communities  which  flourished  in  Greece  and  Sicily  in 
the  Middle  Ages  ?  Jewish  historians  unfortunately 
pay  far  too  much  attention  to  outstanding  events  and 
to  persecutions ;  the  undermining  of  Judaism  by 
assimilation,  a  more  difficult  but  far  more  important 
side  of  the  question,  still  awaits  a  historian. 

The  danger  with  which  modern  assimilation  threatens 
Judaism  has  only  just  begun  to  be  appreciated,  because 
hitherto  its  last  results — conversion  and  intermarriage 
— were  confined  to  certain  countries.  They  were 
looked  upon  as  signs  of  temporary  weakness.  But 
now  that  we  see  the  same  thing  repeating  itself  in 
every  country,  it  is  clear  that  we  have  to  do  here 
with  a  universal  phenomenon,  the  inevitable  result 
of  assimilation.  We  see  in  the  assimilative  movement 
the   greatest   danger   that   has    assailed   fudaism   since 


JEWISH  ASSIMILATION  29 

the  Dispersion.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to 
discuss  to  what  extent  Jews  are  already  assimilated, 
and  what  is  to  be  expected  in  the  way  of 
future  development — more  especially  from  the  Jewish 
national  movement,  the  outcome  of  reaction  against 
assimilation. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE    NUMERICAL   STRENGTH    OF   THE   JEWS. 

A.  Survey  of  the  number  of  Jews  since  the  Dispersion. 
To  estimate  correctly  the  number  of  Jews  in  the 
various  centuries  we  must  begin  by  ignoring  the 
mythical  numbers  given  in  the  Pentateuch  (Ex.  xii.  37, 
Numbers  i.-iii.).  The  first  approximately  reliable 
estimate  is  found  in  the  Book  of  Ezra  ii.  64,  where  the 
number  of  Jews  who  returned  from  the  Babylonian 
exile  under  Zerubabel  is  given  as  42,360.  To  these 
we  must  add  those  who  stayed  behind  in  Babylon,  as 
well  as  those  who  were  settled  in  Phoenicia  and  Egypt ; 
nor  must  we  forget  that  quite  a  considerable  number 
of  Jews  had  not  been  led  away  captive  into  Babylon 
after  the  destruction  of  the  first  Temple,  but  had 
been  left  behind  in  Palestine.  With  all  these  addi- 
tions, the  Jews,  about  500  B.C.  could  not  have 
numbered  much  above  100,000.  They  had  increased 
enormously  by  the  time  of  the  destruction  of  the 
second  Temple  (70  a.d.).  Though  Josephus 1  prob- 
ably exaggerates  grossly  in  putting  the  number  of 
Jews  besieged  in  Jerusalem  at  1,100,000,  and  again  in 
stating  that  in  the  time  of  Nero  2,700,000  Jews  were 
gathered  together  in  Jerusalem  to  celebrate  the  pass- 
over  ;  yet  we  have  Tacitus  2  estimating  the  population 
of  Jerusalem  shortly  before  the  destruction,  at  600,000. 

1  Wars  of  the  Jews,  vi.  9.  2  Historiae,  v.  13. 


NUMERICAL  STRENGTH  OF  THE  JEWS     31 

At  that  time,  however,  the  major  portion  of  the  Jews 
lived  outside  Palestine,  for  since  the  time  of  Alexander 
the  Great,  masses  of  them  had  gone  to  settle  in  the 
lands  on  the  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean.  According 
to  Philo's  estimate,1  which  is  accepted  by  Mommsen, 
the  Jews  contributed  one  million  to  a  population  of 
eight  millions  in  Egypt.  Of  these,  200,000  lived  in 
Alexandria  alone,  the  total  population  of  which  was 
only  500,000.  Of  the  seven  million  inhabitants  of 
Syria  in  the  time  of  Nero,  more  than  one  million, 
according  to  Beloch,2  were  Jews.  Josephus  tells 
us  there  was  no  people  in  the  civilised  world  with- 
out settlements  of  Jews,  and  this  statement  is  borne 
out  by  other  writers,  in  particular  Strabo  and  Seneca. 
Estimating  the  number  of  Jews  in  Palestine  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Christian  era  at  700,000  (Harnack3) 
and  those  in  other  countries  (excluding  Egypt  and 
Syria)  at  one  and  a  half  millions,  we  have  a  total  of 
about  4!  million  Jews  living  within  the  Roman  Empire. 
As,  according  to  Beloch,  the  total  population  of  the 
Roman  Empire  at  that  time  was  54  millions,  the  Jews 
constituted  one-twelfth  of  the  entire  population,  and 
it  is  this  extraordinarily  high  percentage  which 
explains  the  important  role  they  played  at  that  period. 
With  the  Dispersion  we  lose  all  accurate  records  of 
their  numbers.  It  is  probable  that  up  to  the  four- 
teenth century,  owing  to  continual  conversions  to 
Christianity  and  Islam,  their  numbers  did  not  increase, 
though  they  did  not  perceptibly  decrease.  But  with 
the  fourteenth  century  there  begins  a  period  of  great 
losses  to  Judaism,  due  partly  to  voluntary  conversions, 

1  In  Flaccum,  vi. 

2  Die  Bevolkerung  der  griech.-rom.  Welt,  p.  248  (Leipzig,  1886). 

3  The  Mission  and  Spread  of  Christianity  in  the  first  three  Centuries. 


32  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

partly  to  oppression  and  persecution,  which  in  many 
cases  ended  in  wholesale  conversions  or  wholesale 
massacres.  In  either  case  the  consequent  deteriora- 
tion and  unsettled  nature  of  the  Jews'  social  position 
produced  a  much  higher  death-rate,  particularly  of 
children.  Between  the  years  1290-1474  the  Jewish 
population  in  the  kingdom  of  Castile  decreased  from 
850,000  to  150,000 — a  fact  attributable  for  the  most 
part  to  conversions  to  Christianity,  which  have  left 
their  mark  to  the  present  day  in  the  numerous  markedly 
Jewish  types  still  found  in  Spain.  Italy  throughout 
the  Middle  Ages  possessed  large  and  flourishing  Jewish 
communities  ;  one  would  expect  to  find  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  Jews  in  Italy  to-day,  instead  of  which 
there  are  only  35,000,  and  we  have  no  record  of  great 
persecutions  or  emigration.  The  only  reason  we  can 
assign  is  gradual  absorption.  The  period  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  marks  the  time  when  Judaism  had  reached 
its  lowest  ebb  ;  in  the  decade  between  1648-1658  a 
quarter  of  a  million  Jews  perished  in  Poland  alone 
during  the  Cossack  rising  under  Chmielnicki,  while 
the  Western  nations  of  Europe,  with  the  exception  of 
Holland  and  Italy,  admitted  no  Jews  at  all.  The 
kingdoms  of  Poland,  Austria- Hungary  and  the  Balkans 
were  the  only  countries  in  which  large  numbers  of  Jews 
were  to  be  found.  In  the  German  Empire,  according 
to  Graetz,1  there  were  not  more  than  three  or  four 
considerable  Jewish  communities — Frankfurt-am-Main 
with  2,000,  Worms  with  1,400,  Prague  with  10,000, 
Vienna  with  3,000  Jews.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the 
total  number  of  Jews  in  the  world  at  that  time  amounted 
to  one  million. 

How  greatly  the  Jews  suffered  during  that  time  of 

1  History  of  the  Jews. 


NUMERICAL  STRENGTH  OF  THE  JEWS    33 

persecution  is  best  appreciated  by  the  enormous 
rapidity  with  which  they  increased  during  the  two 
succeeding  centuries,  when  the  fury  of  persecution  and 
enforced  baptism  had  somewhat  abated,  and  their 
safety  was  more  assured.  In  the  year  1772  the  total 
Jewish  population  of  Poland  and  Lithuania  is  calcu- 
lated at  308,500  souls,  while  a  Polish  writer  estimates 
them  at  450,000  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century.1  In  1856  in  Russian  Poland  alone,  there  were 
563,000  2  and  in  1897  1,321,100  Jews. 

In  Galicia  the  census  of  1785  gave  212,002  Jews, 
that  of  1857,  448,973,  that  of  1900,  811,371.  In 
Moravia  and  Austrian  Silesia  we  have  in  1775,  23,382, 
in  1830,  32,244,  in  1850,  40,681,  and  in  1900,  56,243 
Jews.  European  Russia  (without  Poland)  possessed,  in 
the  year  1838, 1,023,543  Jews  against  3,789,448  in  1897. 

Prussia  had  in  1816,  123,921,  in  1843,  206,529,  in 
1858,  242,416,  and  in  1905,  409,501  Jews. 

These  numbers  show  that  in  all  these  countries  the 
Jewish  population  has  trebled  itself  in  about  one 
hundred  years,  and  they  give  some  idea  of  the  enormous 
number  of  Jews  there  would  be  in  the  world  to-day  but 
for  the  assimilation  and  persecution  of  over  sixteen 
centuries.  The  Jewish  population  in  the  Diaspora  may 
be  divided  into  a  descending  and  ascending  curve. 
The  descent  took  place  during  the  sixteen  centuries 
following  the  loss  of  their  territory,  during  which  time 
they  decreased  in  numbers  from  five  millions  to  one 
million  ;  the  ascent  began  in  the  seventeenth  century  ; 
in  the  eighteenth  their  numbers  had  increased  to  three 

1  T.  Czacki  Rozprawa  o  Zydach.    Wilna,  1807  ;  quoted  from  Leroy- 
Beaulieu,  The  Jews  and  Anti-semitism. 

•Wengierow,  "Die  Juden  im  Konigreich  Polen"  in  Judische 
Statistik,  vol.  i.  p.  295  (Berlin,  1903). 

C 


34  THE   JEWS   OF  TO-DAY 

millions,  while  at  the  present  day  they  number  over 
twelve  millions.  There  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that 
the  numerical  strength  of  the  Jews  to-day  is  far  greater 
than  it  has  ever  been  at  any  other  period  of  their 
history.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  dangers  which 
threaten  their  existence  are  also  greater  than  they 
have  ever  been.  The  climax  we  have  reached  in 
numbers — which  places  the  Jews  numerically  higher 
than  the  Greeks,  the  Roumanians  and  Bulgarians,  and 
only  slightly  behind  the  Poles — is  due  to  three  causes  : 
first,  that  the  Jews  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  shunned  baptism 
and  intermarriage ;  secondly,  their  death-rate  has  been  a 
low  one  ;  thirdly,  contrary  to  modern  civilised  practice, 
they  indulge  in  very  large  families.  The  decline  of 
this  spirit  must  inevitably  lead  to  another  descent. 

B.  Lost  "  Branches  "  of  Judaism. 

For  the  most  part,  those  Jews  who  have  cut  them- 
selves off  from  Judaism  by  assimilation  and  baptism 
have  mixed  with  their  non- Jewish  environment  and 
become  absorbed  into  it.  Still  there  are  cases  where 
whole  groups  abandoned  Judaism  together,  yet  pre- 
served the  consciousness  of  their  former  attachment  to 
Judaism  for  a  long  period  of  time,  and  married  only 
among  themselves.  The  best-known  examples  of  this 
are  the  Jews  of  Spain  known  as  Marranos.  Forced 
into  baptism  in  the  fifteenth  century,  they  main- 
tained for  more  than  two  hundred  years,  a  separate 
existence,  which  endured  till  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  last  remnant  of  them  has  survived  in  the  Balearic 
Islands,  where  about  6,000  of  them  are  known  under 
the  name  of  Chuetas  or  Anussim.  In  religion  they 
are  Christian,  but  they  are  conscious  of  their  Jewish 


NUMERICAL  STRENGTH  OF  THE  JEWS     35 

origin  and  marry  mostly  among  themselves.  Much 
the  same  thing  may  be  said  of  the  Maimins  or 
Donmes  of  Salonica,  a  sect  called  into  being  by 
Sabbatai  Zevi,  and  numbering  some  4,000  souls,  who 
are  Mahommedan  by  religion,  and  the  Gdid  al  Islam 
in  Khorassan,  some  2,000.  And  with  these  we  must 
mention  the  200  Samaritans — the  remnant  of  the  once 
great  sect  of  Samaritans  at  Nablous  (Shechem). 

Whereas  the  above-mentioned  groups  are  all  Jews  not 
by  faith  but  by  origin,  there  are  on  the  other  hand 
Jewish  proselytes,  that  is,  Jews  by  faith  but  not  by 
race.     Jacobs  *  reckons  the  following  as  such  : 

50,000  Falaschas  in  Abyssinia.2 

20,000  Karaites  in  the  Crimea  and  in  Turkey.3 

10,000  Daggatuns  in  the  Sahara. 

6,500  Beni  Israel  in  Bombay. 

1,000  Black  Jews  in  Cochin. 

As  regards  the  Karaites,  it  is  open  to  question 
whether,  in  spite  of  an  influx  of  Tartar  blood,  they 

l"  On  the  Racial  Characteristic  of  Modern  Jews,"  in  the  Journal 
of  the  Anthropological  Institute. 

2  The  numbers  of  the  Falaschas  are  variously  given.  Faitlowitch, 
who  visited  them  in  1904,  estimates  them  at  50,000  (Notes  d'un 
voyage  chez  les  Falaschas,  Paris,  1905)  ;  Haim  Hahoum,  sent  by 
the  Alliance  Israelite  Universale  in  1908  to  Abyssinia,  at  only  7,000. 

3  The  Karaites  in  Russia  in  1897  numbered  12.894.  Their  centre 
was  the  Crimea  with  6,166  Karaites.  Outside  Russia  there  are 
still  Karaites  in  Turkey  and  in  small  scattered  communities  in 
Galicia,  for  instance  in  the  town  of  Kalicz.  We  might  mention  here 
as  a  curious  fact  the  hundred  or  so  individuals,  who,  Magyar  by 
race,  and  belonging  to  the  Christian  sect  of  Sabbatarians,  embraced 
Judaism  in  the  year  1868,  and  now  live  in  the  village  of  Bozod 
Ujfalu  bei  Schassburg  in  Transylvania.  Again,  there  is  in  Russia 
a  sect  called  Sabbotniki,  the  members  of  which  live  according  to 
Jewish  law,  some  of  whom  have  emigrated  to  Palestine,  where  they 
live  in  the  Jewish  colonies  under  the  name  of  "  Gerim." 


36  THE   JEWS   OF  TO-DAY 

did  not  originally  come  from  Jewish  stock.  Many 
look  upon  them,  indeed,  as  descendants  of  the  Chazars 
who  all  embraced  Judaism  ;  while  there  is  ground  for 
believing  that  they  are  descended  from  the  Syrian  Jews 
who  belonged  to  the  Karaite  sect.  All  the  other 
Jewish  proselytes,  as  has  been  ascertained  from  their 
anthropological  characteristics,  are  certainly  not  of 
Jewish  descent.  The  Falaschas  are  probably  nearer  in 
origin  to  the  Abyssinians,  the  black  Jews  of  Cochin 
and  the  Beni  Israel  of  Bombay  to  the  Indians,  the 
Daggatuns  to  the  Arabs. 

In  the  following  survey  of  the  numbers  of  the  Jews 
in  each  separate  country,  none  of  these  side  branches 
have  been  taken  into  account.  Only  those  have  been 
counted  as  Jews  who  belong  both  by  religion  and  by 
descent  to  the  Jewish  race — that  is  to  say,  those  who  can 
trace  themselves  back  with  more  or  less  purity  of  blood 
to  the  Jews  of  the  time  of  the  downfall  of  the  Jewish 
State,  when  that  State  was  their  national  centre. 

C.  The  existing  numbers  of  Jews,  and  the  spread  of 
Jewry. 
It  is  only  in  the  last  few  years  that  we  have  had 
anything  like  accurate  calculations  of  the  numerical 
strength  of  the  Jews  all  over  the  world,  namely, 
since  the  Russian  census  of  1897  gave  the  number  of 
Jews  living  in  European  and  Asiatic  Russia  at 
5,215,805.  Till  that  time,  estimates  of  the  strength  of 
Russian  Jewry  had  varied  to  an  extraordinary  degree. 
Most  statisticians  and  geographists  estimated  from 
two  to  three  million  Jews  to  be  in  Russia,  so  that  until 
lately  the  total  number  of  Jews  was  given  variously  at 
six  to  eight  millions,  whereas  in  reality  it  reaches 
to-day  practically  twelve  millions. 


NUMERICAL  STRENGTH  OF  THE  JEWS     37 

In  the  synopsis  which  follows  we  have  put  together 
from  the  best  available  sources  the  correct  figures  for 
Jews  in  every  country.  Only  in  very  few  cases  have 
we  been  compelled  to  give  our  own  estimate.  Accuracy 
is  not  possible,  in  the  first  place,  because  many  countries 
— for  lack  of  a  census — can  only  give  us  approxima- 
tions,1 in  the  second  place,  because  the  latest  census  was 
taken  in  different  years  in  the  various  countries.  More- 
over, the  Jews  have  migrated  so  much  in  recent  years 
that  many  changes  would  already  have  to  be  made  in 
the  latest  censuses.  We  should  not  lay  too  much 
stress  on  this,  however,  because  we  may  take  it  that 
the  countries  from  which  the  Jews  emigrate  in  the 
greatest  numbers — Russia,  Galicia,  and  Roumania — 
soon  make  good  their  loss,  thanks  to  the  great 
fertility  of  the  Jews,  so  that  the  number  of  Jews  there 
to-day  is  practically  what  it  was  at  the  time  of  the 
last  census.  The  countries  into  which  there  is  most 
immigration  (England,  South  Africa,  Canada  and  the 
United  States  of  America)  furnish  us  with  quite  recent 
statistics,  which  we  use  in  the  synopsis. 

According  to  our  table,  out  of  a  world-total  of 
11,558,610  Jews,  8,854,037,  i.e.  76.6  per  cent.,  live  in 
Europe,  and  of  these  5,110,548,  i.e.  44.2  per  cent.,  in 

1  In  Europe,  England,  France,  and  Turkey,  besides  some  smaller 
states,  make  no  record  of  religion  in  their  census.  In  America, 
Africa,  and  Asia  censuses  of  very  few  states  are  available.  It  is 
only  in  Australia  that  they  are  complete.  For  the  Oriental  coun- 
tries an  inquiry  instituted  by  the  Alliance  Israelite  Universelle  in 
I904 — the  results  of  which  were  published  in  the  Bulletin  of  the 
All.  Is.  Univ.  II.  Series,  No.  29  (Paris,  1905) — has  been  invaluable 
to  us.  For  America,  Asia,  and  Africa — whenever  official  or  special 
calculations  were  not  forthcoming — we  have  followed  the  figures 
of  The  Statesman's  Year  Book  (1908),  The  English  Jewish  Year 
Book  (1909),  and  The  American  Jewish  Year  Book,  5669  (Phila- 
delphia, 1908). 


38 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


Russia  alone  ;  1,898,000,  i.e.  16.4  per  cent.,  live  in 
America.  This  marks  an  extremely  important  change 
of  locality  for  the  Jewish  people,  when  we  consider 
that  fifty  years  ago  there  were  only  about  50,000,  and 
twenty-five  years  ago  only  230,000  (i.e.  2.5  per  cent,  of 
the  total  number)  in  America.  Asia  has  427,523  (i.e. 
3.7  per  cent.)  ;  Africa,  361,857  (i.e.  3.1  per  cent.)  ; 
and  Australia,  17,106  (i.e.  0.2  per  cent.)  of  the  total 
number. 

AMOUNT   AND   DENSITY   OF   THE  JEWISH   POPULA- 
TION   OF   THE   WHOLE   WORLD. 


To  every 

Country. 

Year. 

Actual 
Figures. 

10,000  of 

General 

Population. 

Source  of 
Information. 

I.  EUROPE. 

Russia     (Pales     of 

Settlement    out- 

side   Poland)    15 

Government  Pro- 

vinces, 

1897 

3,578,227 

112 

Census  1897 

2.  Poland, 

1897 

I,32I,IOO 

H°5 

„       1897 

3.  Baltic  Provinces 

(Courland,     Liv- 

onia, St.  Peters- 

burg), 

1897 

101,875 

249 

„       1897 

4.  Rest    of    Euro- 

pean Russia, 

1897 

109,346 

19 

„       1897 

5,110,548 

497 

„       1897 

A  ustria — 

Galicia, 

I900 

811,371 

1 109 

1900 

Lower       Austria 

(including    Vi- 

enna), 

I900 

157.278 

507 

1900 

Bukovina,  - 

I90O 

96,150 

1317 

1900 

Bohemia,    - 

I9OO 

92,745 

147 

1900 

Moravia,     - 

I900 

44.255 

182 

1900 

Silesia  in  Austria, 

I90O 

11,988 

176 

,,       1900 

Rest  of  Austria,  - 

I90O 

11,112 

20 
468 

1900 

1,224,899 

1900 

NUMERICAL  STRENGTH   OF  THE  JEWS     39 

AMOUNT  AND  DENSITY  OF  THE   JEWISH  POPULATION 
OF  THE  WHOLE  WORLD— Continued. 


To  every 

Actual 

10,000  of 

Source  of 

Country. 

Year. 

Figures. 

General 
Population. 

Information. 

Hungary, 

igOO 

851.378 

442 

Census  1900 

Germany — 

Prussia, 

I905 

409,501 

no 

„      1905 

Bavaria,     - 

I905 

55.341 

85 

„      1905 

Alsace-Lorraine, 

I905 

3i>7°8 

175 

.,      1905 

Baden, 

I905 

25.893 

129 

.,      1905 

Hesse, 

I905 

24,696 

204 

..      1905 

Hamburg,  - 

I905 

19,602 

224 

„      1905 

Saxony, 

I905 

14.697 

32 

.,      1905 

Wurtemberg, 

I905 

12,053 

52 

,.      1905 

Rest  of  Germany, 

I905 

14.371 

35 

..      1905 

607,862 

100 

„       1905 

Rou  mania,     - 

1899 

266,652 

448 

„      1899 

Great  Britain  (Ire- 

land excepted),   - 

I905 

250,000 

65 

S.  Rosenbaum, 
Journal  for  Sta- 
tistics of  the 
Jews,  1906,  p. 
123. 

European  Turkey,  • 

I904 

188,896 

320 

Calculated  by 
All.  Isr.  Uni. 

The  Netherlands,  - 

1899 

103,988 

204 

Census  1899 

France,  -         -         - 

I905 

100,000 

25 

Our    own    cal- 
culation 

Bulgaria  (including 

East  Roumelia),- 

I905 

37.653 

93 

Census  1905 

Italy,     - 

I9OI 

35.617 

11 

1901 

Belgium, 

I905 

25,000 

22 

Our  own  cal- 
culation 

Switzerland,  - 

I90O 

12,551 

38 

Census  1900 

Bosnia  and  Herze- 

govina, 

1895 

8,213 

52 

„      1895 

Greece,  -         -         - 

1907 

6,127 

24 

„      1907 

Servia,  -         -         - 

I90O 

5,729 

23 

,,      1900 

Sweden,  - 

I90O 

3.912 

7 

„      190° 

Ireland,- 

I90I 

3.898 

9 

I9°i 

4o 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


AMOUNT  AND    DENSITY  OF  THE    JEWISH    POPULATION 
OF   THE   WHOLE   WORLD— Continued. 


To  every 

Country. 

Year. 

Actual 
Figures. 

10,000  of 

General 

Population. 

Source  of 
Information. 

Denmark, 

I90I 

3»476 

14 

Census  1901 

Spain,    - 

1905 

2,500 

I 

~\  Eng.  Jew.  Year 

Gibraltar, 

1908 

1,300 

? 

/     Book  1909 

Luxemberg,   - 

I905 

I.2IO 

49 

Census  1905 

Portugal, 

1908 

1,200 

2 

Engl.      Jewish 
YearBookigog 

Crete,     - 

1900 

728 

24 

Census  1900 

Norway, 

I900 

642 

3 

,,        1900 

Malta,    - 

I90I 

58 

3 

1901 

Total  (approx.),  - 

8,854,037 

II.  AMERICA. 

United  States,1 

I907 

I.777.I85 

210 

American  Jew- 
ishY  ear  Book 
5669 

Canada,- 

I908 

60,000 

112 

English  Jewish 
Year  Book 
1909 

Argentina, 

1907 

40,000 

70 

Report  of  the 
Jew.  Col. 
Assoc.  1907 

Mexico,  - 

1895 

8,972 

7 

Census  1895 

Cuba,     - 

1895 

4,000 

20 

\  American  J  ew- 
\     ish  Year 
J      Book  5669 

Brazil,   - 

1895 

3,000 

2 

Jamaica, 

1908 

1,300 

16 

Surinam, 

I902 

1. 158 

150 

]  Statesman's 

Curacao, 

I902 

863 

161 

y      Year  Book 

Peru,      - 

1876 

498 

2 

J      1908 

Venezuela, 

1908 

4II 

2 

\  American  J ew- 

Rest  of  Central  and 

V     ish   Year 

Southern  America, 

1908 

700 

? 

J      Book  5669 

Total  (approx.),  - 

1,898,087 

1  Of  the  Jews  of  the  United  States  about  one  million  live  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  about  100,000  in  the  States  of  Illinois,  Penn- 
sylvania and  Massachusetts,  the  remainder  in  the  other  States ;  of 
these  about  200,000  in  the  Northern  States,  150,000  in  the  Southern 
States,  50,000  in  the  Western  States. 


NUMERICAL  STRENGTH   OF  THE  JEWS     41 

AMOUNT   AND   DENSITY  OF  THE  JEWISH  POPULATION 
OF   THE    WHOLE    WORLD— Continued. 


Country. 

Year. 

Actual 
Figures. 

To  every 

10,000  of 

General 

Population. 

Source  of 
Information. 

III.  ASIA. 

Turkey  in  Asia — l 
Palestine,   - 

1908 

85,000 

I4OO 

Our  own  calcu- 
lation 

„ 

Asia    Minor    and 

Syria, 
Mesopotamia, 
Arabia  (including 

Aden),     - 

I908 
I908 

I908 

75,000 
40,000 

40,000 

55 

? 

? 

240,000 

Russia  in  Asia — 
Caucasus,   - 
Siberia, 
Central  Asia, 

1897 
1897 
1897 

56,783 
34.792 
13.682 

11 

60 
18 

46 

Census  1897 
,,        1897 
„        1897 

105.257 

„        1897 

Persia,  - 

I908 

35.000 

37 

Statesman's 
Year  Book 
1908 

Turkestan  and  Af- 
ghanistan, - 
India,    - 

I908 
I90I 

18,435 
18,226 

? 

1 

Jew.  Year 

Book  1909 
Census  1901 

Dutch  East  India — 
Java   and    other 
colonies, 

China  and  Japan,  - 

I905 
I908 

8,605 
2,000 

2 
0.04 

Census  1905 
Jew.  Year  Book 
1909 

Total  (approx.),  - 

427.523 

1  For  Turkey  in  Asia  (not  including  Arabia)  the  Alliance  calcu- 
lates a  total  of  220,484  Jews,  which  concurs  approximately  with 
Vital  Cuinet's  estimate  of  the  number  of  Jews  in  Turkey  in  Asia 
(not  including  Arabia)  as  201,998  Jews  in  his  Book  La  Turquie 
d'Asia  (Paris,  1892,  1906). 


42 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


AMOUNT    AND   DENSITY  OF  THE   JEWISH  POPULATION 
OF   THE    WHOLE   WORLD— Continued. 


To  every 

Actual 

10,000  of 

Source  of 

Country. 

Year. 

Figures. 

General 
Population. 

Information. 

IV.  AFRICA. 

Morocco, 

1908 

150,000 

300 

Jew.  Year  Book 
1909 

Algiers,  - 

igoi 

57^44 

I20 

Census  1901 

Tunis,    - 

I908 

62,500 

3IO 

Jaques  Chalom 
1909      (Welt 
of  19.  n.  09) 

Transvaal, 

I904 

I5.48I 

115 

Census  1904 

Cape  Colony, 

I904 

19.537 

80 

1904 

Egypt,  - 

I907 

38.635 

34 

1907 

Tripoli,  -         -         - 

I905 

18,660 

186 

Alliance  Isr. 
Univ. 

Total  (approx.),  - 

361.857 

V.  AUSTRALIA. 

Australia, 

15.239 

40 

Census  1901 

New  Zealand, 

1,867 

21 

1906 

17,106 

In  the  whole  World,  11,558,610 

D.  The  local  distribution  of  the  Jews. 

We  see  from  the  foregoing  synopsis  that  the  pro- 
portion of  Jews  to  the  general  population  is  very  small, 
and  in  few  countries  exceeds  10  per  cent.  These 
countries  are  the  fifteen  Government  Departments  of 
the  Russian  Pale  of  Settlement,  Poland,  Galicia, 
Bukovina,  Roumania  and  Palestine.  Of  these,  Pales- 
tine has  only  recently  become  a  land  for  immigrants, 
whereas  the  other  countries  belonged  formerly  to  the 
kingdom  of  Poland,  or  bordered  on  Poland,  and  owe 


NUMERICAL  STRENGTH  OF  THE  JEWS     43 

their  large  Jewish  population  to  the  masses  of  Jews 
who  concentrated  themselves  in  the  Polish  kingdom 
between  the  sixteenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  The 
density  of  the  Jewish  population  never  exceeds  20  per 
cent,  in  any  single  Russian  or  Russo-Polish  Govern- 
mental Department.     It  reaches  : 

18.22  per  cent,  in  the  Government  of  Warsaw. 
17.49  „  ,,  „  Grodno. 

16.06  ,,  „  „  Minsk. 

15.85  ,,  ,,  „  Petrokow. 

15.77  »  >>  »  Lomscha. 

15.69  ,,  ,,  „  Sedlecz. 

In  thirteen  other  governments  of  the  Russian  and 
Polish  Pales  of  Settlement  the  proportion  of  Jews  to 
the  general  population  is  10-15  Per  cent.,  in  five  govern- 
ments it  falls  as  low  as  4-10  per  cent.,  in  the  Government 
of  Poltawa  to  3.99  per  cent.  Outside  the  Pale  of  Settle- 
ment the  Jews  constitute  hardly  anywhere  more  than 
1  per  cent.  In  Galicia  the  Jewish  population  in  the 
municipal  districts  of  Cracow  and  Lemberg  is  28.11  per 
cent,  of  the  general  population,  five  districts  have  from 
15-20  per  cent.,  and  in  all  other  districts  the  percentage 
of  Jews  is  less  than  15  per  cent.  In  Roumania  three 
departments  have  more  than  10  per  cent,  of  Jews, 
namely  the  department  of  Jassy,  24.3  per  cent.,  Boto- 
sanij  17. 1  per  cent.,  Dorohoi,  11. 4  per  cent.  Besides 
the  above-mentioned  countries  the  Jews  of  Hungary 
and  Morocco  constitute  quite  a  considerable  fraction 
of  the  population  ;  in  all  other  countries  the  percentage 
of  Jews  varies  from  1  to  2  per  cent,  of  the  entire 
population. 

The  dispersion  of  the  Jews,  as  we  see  from  the  fore- 
going figures,  is  perhaps  more  thoroughly  consummated 


44  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

to-day  than  ever  before.  In  former  periods  of  the 
Diaspora  the  Jews  had  at  least  one  country  (Babylon 
till  the  eleventh,  Spain  and  the  South  of  France  till  the 
fifteenth,  Poland  till  the  eighteenth  centuries)  in  which 
the  great  majority  of  Jews  lived,  and  which  served  as  a 
national  and  cultural  centre  for  the  Jews  who  were 
scattered  in  smaller  communities  in  other  lands.  A 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  the  Jews  were  almost 
exclusively  concentrated  in  the  kingdom  of  Poland ; 
those  Jews  who  lived  outside  Poland,  in  Turkey,  Italy, 
Holland,  England,  and  Germany,  only  composed  a  small 
fraction  of  Jewry.  To-day  the  province  of  the  smaller 
kingdom  of  Poland  with  its  neighbouring  districts  still 
harbours  half  the  Jews,  but  the  other  half  has  left  this 
centre  and  spread  in  all  directions,  and  this  process  of 
dispersion  is  making  great  headway  in  the  present  day. 
Assimilation  thus  gains  impetus,  because  the  smaller 
the  percentage  of  Jews  amongst  Christians,  the  more 
susceptible  they  are  to  the  assimilative  influences  of 
their  surroundings. 


SECTION  II. 

THE  CAUSES  OF  RAPID  ASSIMILATION 
IN  THE  PRESENT  DAY. 


CHAPTER   III. 

ECONOMIC    PROGRESS   OF   THE  JEWS. 

A.  New  value  attached  to  the  commercial  activities  of  the 
Jews  since  the  dawn  of  the  capitalistic  era. 
The  clue  to  the  right  understanding  of  the  present-day 
assimilative  movement  lies  in  recognising  the  fact  that 
social  intercourse  between  Christian  and  Jew  under- 
went a  complete  change  with  the  coming  of  the  capital- 
istic era.  For  five  hundred  years  Jewish  finance  had 
consisted  merely  in  lending  to  needy  Christians  or 
buying  up  their  goods.  With  the  rise  of  great  manu- 
factures came  a  tremendous  demand  for  money  :  this 
was  where  the  Jew  came  in.  The  money  of  the  Jews, 
from  being  the  capital  of  the  usurer,  became  the  capital 
of  the  merchant  and  of  the  industrial  employer,  and 
the  giving  of  credit  was  thereby  shorn  of  its  unpleasant 
connotations.  The  obligation  to  pay  interest,  and 
eventually  to  repay  the  sums  lent,  that  burden  which 
pressed  so  heavily  on  the  necessitous  noble  or  commoner 
and  eventually  brought  ruin  upon  him — this  was 
nothing  to  the  enterprising  business-man,  who,  with 
the  help  of  Jewish  capital,  had  been  able  to  make  great 
profits.  The  Jewish  money-lender,  from  being  a  hard- 
hearted bigot  and  an  enemy  to  society,  became  the 
friend  and  colleague  of  the  Christian  borrower,  all  the 
more  as  the  increasing  legal  security  of  his  position 


48  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

enables  him  to  demand  only  a  low  rate  of  interest, 
whereas  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  risks  attending  money- 
lending  had  compelled  him  to  demand  a  very  high  rate. 
It  was  not  only  as  a  provider  of  credit  that  the  Jew 
came  to  be  looked  upon  by  the  Christian  as  "  honest  "  ; 
as  man  of  business  and  pioneer  of  industrial  develop- 
ment he  was  everywhere  welcomed.  Under  the  guild 
system  it  had  been  considered  dishonourable  for  any 
individual  to  make  great  profits,  because  that  would 
have  been  prejudicial  to  the  other  members  of  the  guild. 
The  Jew,  who  stood  outside  the  guild,  and  sought  only 
his  own  advantage,  sinned  against  the  spirit  of  guilds 
and  corporations.  His  whole  conduct  of  business  was 
immoral  according  to  their  conceptions.1  With  the  pass- 
ing away  of  the  guilds,  the  "  dishonesty  "  of  the  Jew 
passed  away  too  ;  what  he  did  the  Christian  did  also ; 
private  trade,  the  race  for  money  and  profit,  has  become 
the  foundation  of  modern  economic  life.  So  the  activi- 
ties of  the  Jews  came  to  be  considered  "honest"  because 
the  general  population  adopted  Jewish  methods. 

B.  Successes  of  the  Jews  in  capitalistic  enterprise. 

As  merchants  and  entrepreneurs,  the  Jews  were 
soon  brilliantly  successful,  showing  all  that  great 
business  capacity  which  for  2,000  years  had  seemed  to 
mark  them  out  as  predestined  for  commercial  callings. 
It  is  a  mistake  to  account  for  the  fact  that  the  majority 
of  Jews  are  occupied  in  trade,  by  saying  that  the 
Christians  of  the  Middle  Ages  shut  them  out  from  all 
other  callings.  It  was  not  in  Europe  that  the  Jews 
first  became  traders  ;   since  the  Babylonian  exile  they 

1  An  echo  of  this  is  heard  in  the  cry  raised  against  the  modern 
"  store."  The  small  shops  which  are  hard  hit  by  the  competition 
of  the  great  emporia  denounce  these  latter  as  immoral. 


ECONOMIC  PROGRESS  OF  THE  JEWS     49 

had  devoted  themselves  in  ever-increasing  numbers  to 
trade  in  Syria,  Egypt,  Babylon,  etc.,  while  in  Palestine 
itself,  till  the  destruction  of  their  nationality,  they  lived 
on  the  products  of  the  land.  In  the  Diaspora  the  Jews 
have  never  occupied  themselves  with  agriculture  to  any 
extent.1  The  Middle  Ages  did  not  turn  them  into  : 
traders,  but  merely  intensified  and  increased  an  apti- 
tude that  was  already  there.  It  may  be  taken  as  a 
general  rule  that  legislation  does  not  produce  new  con- 
ditions in  domestic  economy,  it  only  legalises  existing 
conditions,  and  thus  secures  them  against  changes. 
Laws  would  never  have  succeeded  in  confining  the  Jews 
to  work  as  traders  and  pedlars  if  the  Jews  had  not 
already  come  to  Europe  in  these  capacities.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Christians  of  the  thirteenth  and  four- 
teenth centuries,  when  they  took  up  commerce,  and 
when  all  the  great  trades  sprang  up,  did  exclude  Jews 
from  their  organisations,  and  thereby  drove  them  from 
respectable  and  respected  trades  into  the  despised  ones 
of  peddling,  pawnbroking,  and  usury. 

It  is  commonly  agreed  that  the  Jews  do  not  owe 
their  commercial  eminence  to  chance,  but  to  an  extra- 
ordinary inborn  business  capacity.  "  The  Jewish  race 
is — on  one  side  of  its  character — the  incarnation  of  the 
capitalistic  business  spirit,"  says  Sombart,2  whose 
verdict  will  stand  for  that  of  others.3    This  means,  in 

1  The  opposite  is  the  view  taken  by  Schipper  (Angange  des  Kapi- 
talismus  bei  den  abendl&ndischen  Juden  im  friiheren  Miltelalter). 

2  Der  moderne  Kapitalismus,  vol.  ii.  p.  349  (Leipzig,  1902) .  Sombart 
has  recently  depicted  in  detail  the  eminent  part  played  by  Jews  in 
the  development  of  capitalism,  in  his  book  Die  Juden  und  das 
Wirtschaftsleben  (Leipzig,  191 1). 

3  Corroborations  of  this  verdict  can  be  found  in  Russell  and 
Lewis,  The  Jew  in  London,  p.  63  ;  B.  Webb,  The  Jew  of  East  London, 
chap.  ii.  ;    Woltmann,  Politische  Anthropologie,  p.  308,  etc. 

D 


50  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

fact,  that  Jews,  to  a  far  greater  extent  than  Christians, 
produce  men  who  not  only  have  energy  and  daring, 
but  possess  alert  minds,  with  a  special  gift  for  swift 
comprehension  and  combination.  It  is  this  gift  which 
:  makes  the  Jews  the  greatest  chess  players,  excellent 
i  skilled  workmen,  technical  inventors  and  first-class 
business  men. 

It  is  only  because  this  business  capacity,  from  its 
great  importance  in  industrial  life  is  so  strikingly  in 
evidence  that  we  are  apt  to  form  the  erroneous  con- 
clusion that  the  talents  of  the  Jews  are  exclusively 
commercial.1 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  Middle  Ages  helped  to 
foster  this  natural  inclination  of  the  Jews  ;  the  continual 
persecutions  and  restrictions  acted  as  a  sort  of  natural 
selection  by  which  the  less  cunning  and  resourceful  Jews 
were  removed,  and  only  the  very  cleverest — those  who 
could  extricate  themselves  from  the  greatest  difficulties 
— were  able  to  survive.  Similarly  the  smartness  of  the 
American  is  most  simply  explained  by  this  theory  of 
natural  selection  ;  that  is  to  say,  it  was  only  the  most 
energetic,  adaptable  and  courageous  elements  of  Europe 
who  risked  the  voyage  over  the  ocean,  and  left  these 
gifts    as    an    inheritance    to    their   descendants.     The 

1  When  we  speak  of  the  commercial  superiority  of  the  Jews,  it 
is  only  in  comparison  with  the  European  peoples  among  whom  they 
live.  Compared  with  some  other  peoples,  particularly  Indians, 
Greeks,  Armenians  and  Chinese,  this  superiority  is  no  longer  apparent. 
In  the  East  there  is  even  a  proverb  to  the  effect  that  in  business 
one  Armenian  is  equal  to  three  Greeks,  and  one  Greek  to  three 
Jews.  It  is  perhaps  more  than  a  coincidence  that  all  these  rivals 
of  the  Jews  belong,  like  them,  to  the  oldest  civilisations,  to  nations 
who  had  reached  a  high  state  of  culture  at  the  time  when  the  peoples 
of  Central  and  Northern  Europe  were  totally  uncivilised.  An 
ancient  culture  seems  thus  calculated  to  develop  a  predisposition 
to  trade  and  commerce. 


ECONOMIC  PROGRESS  OF  THE  JEWS    51 

commercial  ascendancy  of  the  Jews  must  not  be  taken 
to  mean  that  every  Jew  is  ipso  facto  a  good  business 
man,  and  that  no  Christian  is  his  equal.  There  are 
and  always  were  great  business  men  among  Christians. 
But  the  proportion  is  much  greater  among  Jews  than 
among  Christians.  The  extraordinary  part  played  by 
Jews  in  the  building  up  of  modern  international  trade 
and  finance  is  proof  of  this.  Jews  have  had  no  small 
share  in  inaugurating  the  present-day  system  of  joint - 
stock  enterprises,  and  of  banks,  with  their  facilities  for 
exchange,  for  the  concentration  of  capital,  for  improve- 
ment in  communications,  for  unbounded  competition 
and  wild  speculation.  In  Germany  the  new  kind  of  shop 
— the  store — is  entirely  the  creation  of  Jews,  and  the 
latest  industrial  combinations,  trusts,  syndicates,  etc., 
are,  if  not  creations  of  Jews,  at  least  used  by  them 
to  the  greatest  advantage. 

In  the  struggle  for  life,  besides  intellectual  gifts,  the 
industry,  versatility,  and  powers  of  adaptation  of  the 
Jew  stand  him  in  good  stead.  The  Jew  does  not  despair 
if  one  of  his  enterprises  fails  ;  he  begins  again  straight 
away  with  another.  If  he  should  be  altogether  un- 
successful in  one  calling,  he  is  ready  at  once  to  take  up 
another.1  In  this  he  is  totally  unlike  the  German 
Christian,  for  example,  who  is  slow  to  change  his 
vocation,  but  similar  to  the  North  American,  who  also 
changes  his  profession  without  the  slightest  hesitation. 
The  adaptability  of  the  Jew  is  shown  also  in  another 
direction  ;  he  changes  his  manner  of  living  according 
to  circumstances,  without  being  in  the  least  upset  by 

1  That  is,  provided  the  calling  is  not  held  in  contempt.  For 
instance  in  Galicia,  a  Jew  who  had  his  fire -wood  chopped  by  a 
Ruthenian  told  me  in  answer  to  my  question  why  a  Jew  was  not 
employed  for  this  work,  that  no  Jew  would  undertake  it  for  double 
the  wage. 


52  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

the  change.  Thus  he  can  exist  on  less  than  the 
European  Christian,  and  yet  not  be  satisfied  with  the 
best  that  money  can  buy.  This  is  clue  to  the  fact  that 
the  Jew,  unlike,  let  us  say,  the  German  peasant,  has 
no  fixed  standard  of  life  :  he  is  therefore  always  in  a 
,  state  of  uncertain  equilibrium,  always  pushing  forward, 
never  satisfied  ;  whereas  the  Christian  is  usually  content 
when  he  has  arrived  at  the  standard  of  his  class. 

C.  Wealth  of  the  Jews  in  developed  countries. 

Wherever  there  are  no  Armenians,  Greeks  or  Indians 
to  compete  with  him,  and  the  geographical,  industrial 
and  political  conditions  are  favourable  to  the  free  play 
of  his  commercial  instinct,  the  Jew  rises  to  wealth  and 
position.     This   is   clearly   exemplified   by   the   immi- 
gration of  Jews  into  the  United  States.     Although  they 
are  one  of  those  peoples  who  bring  least  money  with 
them  as  immigrants,  their  condition  there  is,  as  Joseph 
Jacobs   says,   highly   satisfactory.1     Nothing   is   more 
;  extraordinary  than  the  rapidity  with  which  the  new 
\  inhabitants  find  a  means  of  livelihood.   Those  even  who, 
:  on  arrival,  seek  assistance  from  charitable  institutions, 
soon  get  along  without  help.     In  a  World  Almanac  for 
the  year  1900,  a  list  of  4,000  millionaires  included  114 
Jewish  names.     This  is  the  more  remarkable  since,  in 
:  the  last  decades,  Jewish  immigrants  have  been  relatively 
much  poorer  than  non- Jewish.     In  Surinam   (Dutch 
Guiana)  the  Jews,  who  emigrated  thither  from  Brazil 
in  1644  and  were  able  to  develop  themselves  in  absolute 
political  freedom,  attained  to  the  highest  standing  and 
prosperity  :   "  They  became  through  industry,  sobriety 
and  thrift,  masters  of  the  country,  though  they  only 
numbered  1,400.     They  control  all  trade,  all  the  gold- 

1  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  xii.  ("Immigration"). 


ECONOMIC  PROGRESS  OF  THE  JEWS      53 

fields,  all  the  most  influential  situations.  The  colonial 
troops  (Schutterij)  from  their  commandant  down  to 
their  youngest  lieutenant  are  officered  only  by  Jews."  1 
In  Germany  the  prosperity  and  higher  social  status 
of  the  Jew  in  comparison  with  the  rest  of  the  population 
is  shown  in  many  ways  :  primarily  by  the  fact  that  to 
a  far  greater  extent  than  the  Christian  he  belongs  to 
the  "  independent  "  class— that  is,  to  the  highest  of 
the  three  categories  :  independent,  official,  and  wage- 
earning.  This  independent  class  constitutes  three- 
fifths  of  the  total  number  engaged  in  business,  while  for 

RELIGION  AND  INCOME  TAX  IN  BERLIN  1905-6. 


Religion  of  the  Income 
Tax  payer  liable  to  more 
than  21  "Mks.  Income  Tax 
(i.e.  with  income  ex- 
ceeding 1500  Mks. 
a  year). 

Number  of 
Tax  Payers. 

Per  cent, 
of  total 
number. 

State  receipts 

from  Income 

Tax  (in  Mks.). 

Per 
cent,  of 
the  total. 

Income 

Tax 
average 
per  head. 

Evangelist,- 

Catholics,    - 

Other     Christian 
sects  and  Dis- 
senters,  - 

Jews,  - 

Other  Religions,  - 

Garrison,     - 

156,590 
14.756 

I,o68 

29,426 

17 

4.271 

75-96 
7.16 

O.52 

I4.28 

O.OI 

2.07 

20,8l2,II3 
1,641,917 

288,474 

10,517.535 

879 

922,013 

60.88 
4.80 

O.85 

3°-77 
O.OI 
2.69 

132.91 
III.27 

270.II 

357-42 
5i-7i 

215.88 

Total,- 

206,128 

IOO.OO 

34,182,931 

IOO.OO 

165.84 

the  Christian  it  is  barely  one-fourth.2  In  Berlin,  the 
greater  wealth  of  the  Jews  is  manifest  in  the  accom- 
panying table,  from  which  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Jews, 
who  in  1905  constituted  only  4.84  per  cent,  of  the  total 

1  Prof.  Joest  in  Globus.     Vol.  60,  p.  304  (1891). 
2 1  am  here  repeating  some  remarks  made  in  my  publication  Die 
sozialen  Verhaltnisse  der  Juden  in  Preussen  und  Deutsch'.and. 


54 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


population  of  Berlin,  gave  14.27  per  cent,  of  house- 
holders liable  to  an  income  tax  of  21  marks  (that  is, 
having  over  1,500  marks  (£75)  yearly  income)  ;  and  the 
sum  realised  by  taxation  of  these  householders  came  to 
almost  a  third  of  the  total,  namely  30.77  per  cent. 

The  Jews  of  Berlin  numbered  on  1st  December,  1905, 
98,893  souls,  and  of  these,  two-thirds  were  non-earning 
children  and  women.  Therefore  the  fact  that  29,426 
Jews  were  liable  to  the  21  Mk.  income-tax  means  that 
only  a  small  fraction  of  wage-earning  Jews  had  less  than 
1,500  Mks.  income,  whereas  among  Christians  this  class 
constitutes  the  majority. 

In  the  Arch-Duchy  of  Baden  in  the  year  1907  we 
get  the  following  : 


Protestants. 

Catholics. 

Jews. 

Mks. 

Mks. 

Mks. 

Capital,        - 

1,007,242,320 

632,064,030 

180,399,900 

Real  estate  and  Trade 

Earnings,  - 

1,153,062,100 

1,354,649,080 

177,686,920 

Income,        ... 

172,760,510 

I4L597.035 

31,815,480 

Against  this  the  average  per  head  of  the  population 


was : 


Protestants. 

Catholics. 

Jews. 

Property  (Capital,  Real 

Estate  and  Earnings), 

Income,        ... 

Mks. 
2,806 

244 

Mks. 

1,646 
117 

Mks. 

13.829 
1,229 

In  Frankfurt-am-Main  (famous  for  the  wealth  of  its 
Jews)  we  get  on  a  tax  levied  on  those  with  more  than 
3,000  Mk.  income,  Jews,  63.15  %,  Protestants,  25.45  %» 
Catholics,  16.93  %. 


ECONOMIC  PROGRESS  OF  THE  JEWS      55 


In  Copenhagen  the  greater  prosperity  of  the  Jews  is 
patent  from  the  fact  that  to  every  two  of  the  indepen- 
dent class  there  is  only  one  of  the  working  class  (against 
ten  of  the  general  population)  ;  and  again  from  their 
better  conditions  of  housing  and  domestic  service. 


Houses  with  1-2  rooms, 
„    3-4 

„    5-7 

,,    8  and  more, 


Among  Jews. 


1 1.9  per  cent. 

21.7 

47-2 

19.2 


Among  General 
Population. 


48.5  per  cent. 
35-8        ,. 
12.9 
2.8 


Jews. 

General 
Population. 

Families  without  servants,    - 

34.8  per  cent. 

87.2  per  cent. 

„       with  1  servant, 

37-6 

10.4 

,,2  servants, 

21.0 

2.0 

„    3                       -         " 

4-7 

0.3 

„           ,,    more  than  3,  - 

1.9 

0.1 

In  Italy  the  notable  number  of  Jews  engaged  in  the 
higher  and  more  independent  callings  (officials,  lawyers, 
doctors,  engineers,  teachers),  and  the  high  percentage 
living  on  their  incomes  (9.26  per  cent,  of  Jews  as  against 
2.86  per  cent.  Christians),  are  attributed  to  the  greater 
material  prosperity  of  the  Jews. 

D.  Poverty  of  the  Jews  in  industrially  backward  countries. 
We  have  shown  that  the  Jews  acquire  great  wealth 
wherever  the  modern  system  of  capitalised  trade  and 
manufacture  has  been  introduced  ;  this  is  far  from  being 
the  case  in  countries  of  backward  economic  develop- 
ment. The  lack  of  manufacture  and  of  trade  on 
a  large  scale  in  Galicia,  and  their  backward   state   in 


56 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


Russia,  Roumania,  and  Turkey  have  made  it  impossible 
for  the  Jews  of  these  countries  to  make  the  best  use  of 
their  talents  ;  so  they  eke  out  a  miserable  existence  with 
petty  handicraft  and  peddling,  and — the  supply  of  shop- 
keepers and  artisans  already  far  exceeding  the  demand 
— compete  with  one  another  murderously. 

In  Russia  this  competition  is  aggravated  by  the  Jews 
being  confined  to  the  Pale  of  Settlement  and  thus 
prevented  from  sharing  in  the  life  of  the  Greater 
Russian  Empire.  The  hardship  which  this  entails  on 
the  Jews  can  be  numerically  estimated  by  comparing 
the  number  of  Jews  engaged  in  their  specific  callings 
within  and  without  the  Pale  area.  Take,  for  instance, 
four  similarly  constituted  governments — Witebsk  and 
Mohilew  within  the  Pale  area,  and  Pskow  and  Smolensk 
outside  it.  To  every  1,000  of  the  general  population  we 
have  : 


Engaged  in 

Witebsk  and 
Mohilew. 

Pskow  and 
Smolensk. 

Hawking,     - 
Tailoring,     - 
Carrying  Trade,    - 
Teaching  and  Education, 

52.9 

24-3 
6.8 
6.0 

19-5 

U-3 

1-7 

2-3 

As  we  are  here  dealing  with  callings  directed  to  local 
markets,  and  the  Jews  make  two-thirds  of  the  total 
numbers  engaged  in  these  callings,  we  see  that  the 
specifically  Jewish  branches  of  trade  have  two  and  three 
times  the  numbers  engaged  in  them  within  the  Pale  of 
Settlement,  as  compared  with  those  outside  it.  We 
can  imagine  the  overcrowding  in  these  callings.1 
Besides  this,  there  are  within  the  Pale,  any  number  of 

1  Brutzkus,     Im    russischen    Ansiedelungsgebiet    unci    ausserhalb 
desselben. 


ECONOMIC  PROGRESS  OF  THE  JEWS     57 

Jews  with  no  fixed  business — broker  one  day,  clerk  the 
next,  teacher  the  next.  Halpern  tells  of  a  Russian 
Jew  whose  chief  means  of  livelihood  consisted  in  un- 
corking sealed  butts  of  brandy  with  a  corkscrew  on 
market  days.1  With  luck  the  man  earned  15  copecks 
a  market  day.  In  a  special  study  of  conditions  in 
Odessa2  we  read  that  in  the  year  1900,  of  150,000 
Jewish  inhabitants  no  less  than  48,500  were  supported 
by  such  feeble  communal  charity  as  there  was  :  63  per 
cent,  of  the  dead  in  Odessa  had  pauper  burials,  and  a 
further  20  per  cent,  were  buried  at  the  lowest  possible 
rate.  It  is  not  without  reason  that  Leroy-Beaulieu 
says  :  "I  can  certify  that  nothing  in  Europe  is  so  j 
poor,  no  beings  earn  their  crust  of  rye  bread  with  such  [ 
bitterness,  as  nine-tenths  of  the  Russian  Jews." 

In  Galicia  we  see  the  same  thing.  Only  a  fraction  of 
the  Jews  have  any  sort  of  assured  existence,  the  rest 
live  from  hand  to  mouth  and  often  do  not  know  in  the 
morning  where  to  procure  a  meal  for  themselves  and 
their  families.  Max  Nordau  has  coined  the  word 
"  Luftmenschen "  (men  of  air)  for  such  types.  In 
statistics  these  "  Luftmenschen  "  come  under  the  head- 
ing of  "  Casuals  "  or  "  Independents  of  no  vocation/' 
and  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  Jews  of  Galicia,  who 
constitute  only  11.09  Per  cent-  °*  tne  population,  give 
31,754,  i.e.  51.51  per  cent.,  of  these  "  Independents  of 
no  vocation,"  and  61,829,  *-e-  39-8°  Per  cent.,  of 
"  Casuals."  A  Jewish  artisan  or  shopman  who  earns 
from  8-10  gulden  a  week  is  considered  almost  well  off, 
and  is  looked  upon  by  the  masses,  who  generally  have 
to  support  numerous  families  on  6,  5,  and  even  4  and 
3  guldens  a  week,  as  a  man  to  be  envied.     I  visited  over 

r 

1  Die  judischen  Arbeiter  in  London,  p.  7. 

2  J.  Brodowski,  Das  judische  El  end  in  Odessa. 


58  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

ioo  families  of  the  artisan  class  in  small  Galician  towns 
in  the  year  1903,  and  found  that  the  majority  earned  a 
weekly  wage  of  from  5-7  gulden,  of  which  at  least  1 
or  1 J  gulden  went  to  rent  and  Hebrew  instruction  for 
the  children.  On  the  remaining  4-5  gulden  the  family 
of  5-8  persons  had  to  feed  and  clothe  themselves  ! 

Perhaps  conditions  in  Roumania  are  even  worse  than 
in  Galicia,  and  the  Jews  suffer  the  more  acutely  because 
until  the  eighties,  their  lot  there  was  a  very  good  one. 
But  since  then  the  influx  of  Jewish  immigrants  from 
Galicia  and  Russia  has  set  up  such  terrible  competition 
among  the  Jews  themselves,  that  this,  combined  with 
the  anti-Semitic  legislation,  has  literally  robbed  the 
majority  of  Jewish  small  shop-keepers  and  artisans  of 
any  sort  of  means  of  livelihood. 

E.  Principal  vocations  followed  by  Jews. 

Accurate  statistical  information  as  to  the  vocations 
followed  by  the  Jews  are  to  hand  from  Italy,  Germany, 
New  South  Wales,  Austria  and  Russia,  and  are  set 
down  in  the  following  table.  We  see  from  it  that  the 
majority  are  engaged  in  trade  and  commerce  ;  in  Italy, 
Germany  and  New  South  Whales  about  one-half,  and  in 
Austria  and  Russia  about  two-fifths  of  all  Jewry  is 
engaged  in  it,  against  5  to  10  per  cent,  of  Christians. 

On  the  other  hand,  Christians  are  engaged  in  agri- 
culture to  the  extent  of  75  per  cent,  in  Germany,  50 
per  cent,  in  Austria  and  Italy,  and  even  66  per  cent, 
in  Russia,  while  the  Jews  are  a  negligible  quantity. 
Austria  is  a  slight  exception  to  this,  11.42  per  cent,  of 
Jews — quite  a  considerable  percentage — being  occupied 
there  in  agriculture.  Still  it  would  be  wrong  to  imagine 
these  Jews  as  peasants  ;  they  are  for  the  most  part 
lessees  and  lessors  of  property,  administrators,  sellers 


ECONOMIC  PROGRESS  OF  THE  JEWS      59 


TO    EVERY    10, COO    Ch 


Vocation. 


enaany 

(rooi).    '      (1907). 


Agriculture,      Christiana       5326 
Jews.  31 


3166 
128 


5.  Wales 
(1901). 


Austria  2 
(1900). 


174 


5444 
1142 


Russia- 
(1897). 


7157 
38l 


Manufac- 
tures, 

Christians. 
Jews. 

2244 
867 

35S7 
2151 

— 
2494 

2668 
2867 

1 144 
3463 

Commerce, 

Christians. 
Jews. 

832 
5034 

106S 
4972 

4985 

607 
3826 

543 
4315 

Public 
Service, 

Christians. 
Jews. 

648 

1S71 

55i 
647 

884 

460 
723 

413 
630 

Casual 
labour. 

Christians. 
Jews. 

83 
78 

555 
210 

614 

224 
543 

443 
661 

Domestic 
Service, 

Christians. 
Jews. 

136 

3i 

— 

_ 

— 

— 

Of  indepen- 
dent means, 

Christians. 
Jews. 

492 

179S 

1073 
1892 

713 

440 
377 

226 

400 

Of  no 
vocation. 

Christians. 
Jews. 

239 
290 

136 

157 
522 

74 
150 

of  agricultural  produce.  The  noticeably  large  share 
taken  by  the  Jews  in  manufacture  in  Austria  and 
Russia  is  explained  by  the  great  number  of  Jewish 
operators  in  these  countries,  whereas  in  other  countries 
the  Jews  belong  by  preference  to  wholesale  manu- 
facturers. In  the  division  "  Public  Service "  Italy 
claims  a  large  number  of  Jews.     This  is  because  in 

1  The  figures  for  Italy  represent  males  of  over  fifteen  years. 

1  The  figures  for  Austria  and  Russia  include  both  workers  and 
those  dependent  on  them. 

3  The  figures  for  Christians  in  Russia  refer  to  Greater  Russia 
only. 


L 


60  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

Italy  all  civil  and  military  positions  are  open  to  them, 
and  the  Jews  there  are  not,  as  in  Germany  and  Austria, 
limited  to  unofficial,  voluntary  professions  (such  as 
those  of  doctor,  lawyer,  teacher,  etc.) . 

In  the  divisions  of  Casual  Labour  and  "  Domestic 
Service  "  there  is  a  marked  difference  between  the  two 
groups  Germany  and  Italy — Austria  and  Russia.  In 
the  former  countries  the  Jews  take  a  smaller  share  than 
the  Christians.  The  reason  for  this  has  already  been 
given ;  all  branches  of  industry  open  to  Jews  in 
Austria  and  Russia  are  overcrowded,  making  a  large 
surplus  of  Jews  who  have  to  seek  their  fortune  as 
chance  dictates,  one  day  in  one,  one  day  in  another 
occupation. 

The  "  men  of  independent  means,"  of  whom  private 
gentlemen  and  pensioners  make  up  the  largest  con- 
tingent, are  most  numerous  in  Italy  and  Germany, 
illustrating  the  greater  prosperity  of  Jews  in  these 
countries. 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  the  five  countries 
represent  stages  in  the  gradual  ascent  of  the  Jews  from 
peddling  and  hawking  to  wholesale  trade  and  manu- 
facture. Russia  and  Austria  show  them  on  the  lowest 
rungs  of  petty  trading  and  handicraft.  They  are  here, 
in  an  overwhelming  majority,  small  artisans,  shop- 
keepers, innkeepers,  usurers,  pawnbrokers,  pedlars — 
earning  a  scanty  existence,  which  the  slightest  mis- 
chance suffices  to  destroy.  New  South  Wales  shows 
an  advance  in  the  direction  of  wholesale  trade  and 
more  liberal  professions,  while  in  Germany,  and  still 
more  in  Italy,  we  see  the  Jews  exchanging  their  former 
petty  occupations  for  the  great  industries  and  all 
liberal  callings.  In  Rome,  Berlin  and  London  the 
type  of  Jew  (apart  from  the  "  greener  "  immigrant) 


ECONOMIC  PROGRESS  OF  THE  JEWS      61 

is  no  longer,  as  he  was  150  years  ago,  the  shabby  hawker 
and  pawnbroker,  but  the  successful  man  of  business, 
the  factory  manager,  the  wholesale  merchant,  the 
banker.  Of  all  Jews  engaged  in  business  there  are 
employed,  in  the  highest  departments  of  commerce — 
in  particular,  in  banking  and  finance — 5.63  per  cent. 
in  Italy,  3.90  per  cent,  in  Germany,  as  against  only 
0.36  per  cent,  in  Russia. 

In  Roumania,  which  could  not  be  included  in  the 
table  because  it  had  no  complete  statistics,  the  Jews 
are  the  backbone  of  the  young  Roumanian  industry, 
and  provide  a  very  considerable  number  of  artisans. 
An  official  enquiry  instituted  in  the  year  1901-02 
ascertained  that  there  were  : 

As  Employers.       As  Officials  and  Workmen. 

Roumanians      -         -  53.9  per  cent.     77.0  per  cent. 
Aliens    of    foreign 

nationality     -         -  26.6        ,,  17.7 

Aliens  without  foreign 

nationality     -         -  19.5        „  5.3 

On  1st  April,  1908,  it  was  ascertained  in  Roumania 
that  of  the  127,841  persons  engaged  in  handicraft, 
25,184  =  19.70  per  cent.,  belonged  to  the  Jewish  creed,1 
while  the  Jews  numbered  : 

10,831  among  41,260  master-workmen,  i.e.  26.26 

551        ,,  6,189  foremen,                 >>      8-9° 

10,699        »  64,023  artisans,                  ,,     16.72 

13,103        ,,  16,369  apprentices,            „     18.96 

In  certain  districts  the  majority  of  artisans  are  Jews  ; 
for  instance,  68.70  per  cent,  in  the  district  of  Botoschani, 

1  Jewish  women  figure  largely  in  all  handicrafts.  Out  of  a  total 
of  15,070  women  engaged  in  handicraft,  39.41  per  cent,  were  Jewish. 


62  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

63.05  per  cent,  in  the  district  of  Jassy,  65.57  m  tne 
district  of  Dorohoi,  etc.  Similarly  in  certain  branches 
of  handicraft  there  is  a  majority  of  Jewish  workmen, 
for  instance,  among  plumbers,  modistes,  watchmakers, 
goldsmiths,  brushmakers,  gold-lace  makers,  box-makers. 
To  go  by  figures,  the  greatest  number  of  Jews  are 
employed  in  tailoring  (9,259),  shoemaking,  plumbing, 
carpentering  and  baking.  Their  excess  of  numbers  and 
the  consequent  terrible  competition,  combined  with  the 
preference  shown  to  the  Christian  workman  as  against 
the  Jew,  tend  to  make  the  position  of  the  Jewish  work- 
man in  Roumania  as  bad  and  even  worse  than  that  of 
his  brother  in  Galicia. 

The  Russian  and  Galician  immigrants  to  England 
and  the  United  States  have  created  new  industries  in 
their  new  homes,  such  as  dressmaking,  laundry,  and 
the  manufacture  of  footwear,  caps,  cigars,  boxes  and 
domestic  furniture.  Most  immigrants  are  employed  in 
these  industries,  the  centres  of  which  in  England  are 
London,  Manchester,  Leeds ;  in  America,  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  Chicago.  The  condition  of  these  Jewish 
working  men  is  not  very  brilliant,  but  at  any  rate  it  is 
a  great  advance  on  that  in  Galicia  and  Russia.  The 
conditions  of  housing  and  labour  may  be  very  bad 
according  to  English  standards,  but  they  are  not  to  be 
compared  to  the  overcrowding,  the  dirt  and  the  misery 
of  Eastern  Europe.  Besides,  there  is  always  the  chance 
of  escape  from  the  sweating  system,  and  of  finding  some 
better  paid  employment ;  and  most  of  them  do  succeed 
sooner  or  later  in  becoming  their  own  masters.  This  is 
their  most  ardent  desire,  almost  as  Halpern  says,  a 
mania  with  them.1  "  The  Jewish  working-man,  almost 
without    exception,   cherishes    the    hope   of    one   day 

1  Die  J iidischen  Arbeiter  in  London,  p.  49  (Stuttgart,  1903)- 


ECONOMIC  PROGRESS  OF  THE  JEWS     63 

becoming   a   small  master,  dealer  or  shopkeeper — in 
short,  of  living  rather  on  profits  than  on  wages."  x 

It  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  Jewish  working  man  of  Eastern 
Europe  that  he  is  not  proud  of  his  calling,  as,  for 
instance,  German  and  English  workmen  are.  Jewish 
handicraft  is  seldom  in  a  healthy  state  ;  it  is  weak  and 
stunted.  This  is  partly  attributable  to  the  generally 
bad  economic  conditions  in  Eastern  Europe  ;  but  it  is  I 
certainly  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  Jews  cannot  take  I 
a  real  pleasure  in  handicraft ;  their  excess  of  mental 
energy  makes  them  feel  the  need  of  change  and  emotion 
such  as  they  find  in  trade,  but  not  in  labour.2  The  New 
York  Ghetto  poet,  Morris  Rosefeld,  does  not  speak  for 
himself  alone  in  describing  his  agony  of  weariness  and  J 
desolation  in  the  workroom  and  factory  :  he  voices  the 
general  feeling  of  the  Jewish  workman.  Miserable  \ 
dwellings,  scarcity  of  food,  renunciation  of  pleasures — 
these  are  to  him  as  nothing  compared  to  the  influence 
of  machine  and  factory.  It  is  not  from  dread  of  any 
physical  strain,  but  simply  from  dislike  of  uniformity 
and  monotony,  as  can  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  in 
work  that  requires  skill  and  intelligence,  Jews  are  to 
be  found  in  great  numbers  in  Western  Europe.  Thus 
almost  the  whole  industry  of  diamond-cutting,  which 
is  centred  in  Amsterdam,  is  in  Jewish  hands  ;  of  the 
10,000  engaged  in  it  there,  80  per  cent,  are  Jews,  and 

1  Russell  and  Lewis,  The  Jew  in  London,  p.  192. 

2  It  is  the  same  craving  for  excitement  and  chance  that  makes 
Jews  addicted  to  gambling.  Nowhere  in  England  is  there  so  much 
lottery  play  as  among  the  poor  Jewish  immigrant  population  ;  and 
in  Eastern  Europe,  betting,  lottery,  and  card-playing  is  widespread. 
What  the  poor  Jew  does  in  a  small  way,  the  rich  Jew  does  in  a  large 
way,  in  speculation,  on  the  Exchange,  in  the  Casino,  and  on  the 
racecourse.  It  is  characteristic  that  the  Jewish  immigrants  in 
England  go  in  for  the  branches  of  trade  where  most  risk  is  involved, 
such  as  the  perishable  fish  and  fruit  markets. 


64  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

of  these,  the  1,300  female  workers  are  practically  all 
Jewesses.1  That  we  are  here  dealing  with  superior 
workmen  is  apparent  from  the  average  wage  of  the  men, 
which  amounts  to  50-80  Mks.  per  week,  and  the  fact 
that  they  constitute  one  of  the  strongest  trades-unions 
in  the  world.  The  Jews  are  engaged  in  large  numbers 
"  in  the  gold  and  silversmith  trade  in  all  countries  ;  they 
I  are  numerous  also  as  opticians,  higher  mechanics,  and 
:  master  tailors.  The  Jew's  dislike  of  factory  work  is 
i  increased  by  the  slight  chances  of  promotion  it  offers 
■  — the  unlikelihood  of  his  ever  being  able  to  realise  his 
ambition  of  becoming  his  own  master.  The  strict 
discipline  of  the  factory,  with  its  suppression  of  any 
independent  initiative,  is  in  the  highest  degree  anti- 
pathetic to  him.  He  actually  prefers  to  work  under 
the  sweating  system,  in  spite  of  the  unhygienic  con- 
ditions of  its  workrooms,  and  the  excessive  hours  ;  he 
prefers  it  because  of  the  freedom  of  intercourse  between 
the  workers  (including  the  employer) ,  and  because  there 
is  less  supervision  and  discipline.  The  Jew  only 
becomes  an  ordinary  artisan  when  trade  has  ceased  to 
pay  at  all,  and  the  great  number  of  Jewish  workmen 
and  their  organisation  into  unions  in  Eastern  Europe 
shows  that  the  Jew  can  at  any  rate  make  a  living  as  a 
workman  and  an  operative.  But  wherever  trading  is 
possible,  he  trades.  Nor  can  we  wonder  at  this  ;  he 
is  thereby  only  carrying  out  the  universal  law  that 
everyone  strives  to  do  that  for  which  he  is  best  fitted. 

F.    N on-w age- earning  dependents  of  the  West  European 
Jew. 
In    comparison    to    the    East    European    Jew,    the 
Western   Jew   has   few  non-wage-earning   dependents 

1  N.  W.  Goldstein,  Die  Jnden  in  der  Amsterdamer  Diamanten- 
Industrie. 


ECONOMIC  PROGRESS  OF  THE  JEWS      65 

(children  and  grown-up  daughters).  In  Germany,  by 
the  census  of  1882,  15.94  per  cent.,  and  by  that  of  1859, 
21.97  per  cent,  of  Jewish  females  were  wage-earners  ; 
whereas  in  Eastern  Europe  the  principle  that  the  man 
is  the  wage-earner,  and  the  place  of  the  woman  is  in 
the  home,  is  generally  acted  upon  ;  it  is  only  during 
the  last  few  decades  that  conditions  have  altered 
sufficiently  for  the  female  worker  to  be  no  longer  a 
rarity. 

If  we  compare  the  number  of  non-wage-earners  (0-15 
and  over  60  years)  and  wage-earners  (15-60  years)  of 
Jews  and  non-Jews,  we  see  that  in  Russia  and  Roumania, 
Galicia  and  Bukovina,  the  Jews  have  more,  in  all  other 
countries  fewer  non- wage-earners  than  the  Christians. 
The  same  difference  is  noticeable  between  the  Eastern 
and  Western  European  Jews.  The  West  European 
Jews  are  seen  to  be  less  burdened  with  dependents 
even  than  West  European  Christians,  and  this,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  the  number  of  persons  over  60  years 
is  larger  with  the  Western  Jews  than  anywhere  else. 
This  is  because  many  persons  over  60  years  still  go  on 
earning,  and  their  number  in  any  case  is  only  a  fraction 
of  the  number  of  children.  Leroy-Beaulieu  says  :  "  It 
is  as  if,  clever  reckoners  that  they  are,  they  had  solved 
by  instinct  the  difficult  problem  of  population  in  the 
manner  the  most  convenient  for  themselves,  and  the 
best  for  national  economy." 

The  burden  of  "  dependents  with  no  vocations  "  on 
the  Jews  of  Western  Europe  would  be  still  less,  and  the 
comparison  with  the  Christians  still  more  favourable, 
were  it  not  that  Jewish  children  on  an  average  attend 
schools  to  a  higher  age  than  Christian  children.  The 
latter  leave  school  for  the  most  part  at  the  legally 
prescribed     age     of     fourteen    years,     while    Jewish 


66  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

children  often  remain  till  their  eighteenth  and  nine- 
teenth year. 

G.  Possibilities  of  advance  in  the  industrial  position  of 
the  Jews  of  Eastern  Europe. 

The  foregoing  discussion  shows  that  the  Jews  have 
attained  to  a  high  standard  of  prosperity  in  all  countries 
which  are  commercially  well  developed — such  a  high 
standard  indeed,  that  it  is  a  rarity  to  find  a  native  born 
Jew  in  England,  Germany,  France  or  Italy  who  is  poor. 
In  Eastern  Europe,  on  the  other  hand,  the  badge  of 
poverty  is  on  the  whole  population.  We  must,  of 
course,  take  into  consideration  that  this  poverty  is 
all  the  more  striking  by  contrast  with  the  wealth  of 
the  Western  Jews.  If  we  compare  it  to  the  economic 
position  of  the  Christians  of  Eastern  Europe,  the  result 
is  not  always  unfavourable  to  the  Jews.  In  Galicia, 
for  instance,  judging  from  the  proceeds  of  taxation,  in 
twenty-seven  large  towns  in  1904  the  Jews  stand 
financially  higher  than  do  the  Christians,  the 
number  of  taxpayers  and  particularly  of  super-tax- 
payers (those  earning  Kr.  100  a  year  and  over),  being 
relatively  more  numerous  among  Jews  than  Christians.1 
And  if  we  were  to  compare  the  economic  condition 
of  the  Jews  in  Eastern  Europe  to-day  with  that  of 
twenty  or  fifty  years  ago,  we  should  find  in  all 
probability  that,  bad  as  it  is,  it  is  still  an  advance  on 
former  conditions. 

Signs  are  not  wanting  that  at  no  very  distant  date 
we  may  expect  a  further  advance,  and  a  very  great  one. 
Wholesale  trade  and  industry  are  slowly  but  gradually 
insinuating  themselves  into  Eastern  Europe,  and  all 
the  opposition  of  the  Government  and  the  non-Jewish 

1  Thon,  Die  Juden  in  Oesterreich,  p.  133  (Berlin,  1908). 


ECONOMIC  PROGRESS  OF  THE  JEWS      67 

population  will  not  be  able  to  hinder  the  Jews  from 
exercising  their  natural  gifts  in  the  industrialisation  of 
Eastern  Europe.  Thus  Roumania,  in  spite  of  the  most 
stringent  and  repressive  laws  against  the  foreigner, 
i.e.  the  Jew,  could  not  prevent  Jews  creating  great 
industries  in  Roumania  and  thus  bettering  their  con- 
dition. The  laws  of  economic  development  prove 
stronger  in  the  end  than  paper  legislation. 

We  have  seen  that  the  poverty  of  the  Jews  in  Eastern 
Europe  is  caused  not  only  by  the  lack  of  wholesale 
trade,  but  also  by  the  overcrowding  in  the  various 
Jewish  vocations,  and  the  consequent  murderous  com- 
petition. This  overcrowding  has  been  lessened  of  late 
by  increased  emigration  into  the  interior  and  to  foreign 
countries.  In  Russia  the  Jews  force  their  way  out  of 
the  Pales  of  Settlement  within  which  anti- Jewish 
legislation  seeks  to  enclose  them.  In  1897  there  were 
211,221  Jews  outside  the  Pale  of  Settlement,  and  their 
number  has  since  appreciably  increased  in  spite  of  all 
rights  of  residence  being  withheld.  Once  out  of  the 
Pale  the  Jews  find  wide  fields  for  their  energy  and 
achieve  such  prosperity  as  was  unattainable  before.  In 
Galicia  the  Jews  leave  the  villages  and  small  towns 
where  the  increasing  State-protection  of  peasants,  the 
spread  of  the  co-operative  spirit,  and  the  competition 
of  Christian  dealers  make  it  harder  than  ever  for  them 
to  get  a  living,  and  turn  their  steps  to  the  large  towns. 

But  much  more  important  than  these  migrations 
is  the  emigration  to  foreign  countries.  This  takes 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  Jews  from  Eastern  Europe, 
and  not  only  opens  up  a  brighter  future  to  the 
immigrants  themselves,  but  also  to  the  Jews  who 
stay  behind,  who  are  thus  relieved  of  some  of  the 
pressure  of  competition.     In  particular,  the  insecurity 


68  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

of  the  artisan  as  to  whether  there  will  be  work  for 
him  on  the  morrow,  an  insecurity  which  hangs  like 
a  shadow  over  the  broad  mass  of  Eastern  European 
Jews,  becomes  less  and  less,  and  the  number  of  "  Luft- 
menschen  "  is  on  the  decline. 

On  the  whole,  therefore,  we  may  hope  that  at  no 
very  distant  date  better  days  will  dawn  for  the  Jews  of 
Eastern  Europe.  The  prohibition  against  residing  out- 
side the  Pale,  which  the  Russian  Government  is  now 
modifying,  must  sooner  or  later  become  a  dead  letter  ; 
industry  advances,  communication  is  improving ; 
Jewish  emigration  assumes  larger  proportions  year  by 
year.  Thus  the  Jews  of  Eastern  Europe  will  in  all  likeli- 
hood advance  industrially  within  the  next  ten  years  to 
the  point  their  Western  brethren  have  already  reached. 
This  industrial  advance  —  founded  on  progressive 
capitalism — will  not  only  improve  the  economic  con- 
dition of  the  Jews,  enable  their  children  to  enjoy  good 
schooling,  and  widen  their  intercourse  with  Christians  ; 
above  and  beyond  all  this,  it  will,  as  we  have  already 
seen  in  Western  Europe,  wipe  out  the  economic  anti- 
thesis between  Jew  and  Gentile,  and  generally  smooth 
the  way  for  rapid  assimilation. 


CHAPTER   IV. 


THE    DECLINING    BIRTH-RATE. 


A.  The  decline  in  the  Jewish  birth-rate  and  its  causes. 
In  face  of  the  great  increase  in  the  Jewish  population 
in  the  nineteenth  century,  which,  according  to  Schudt, 
had  been  going  on  from  the  very  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  it  is  rather  surprising  to  see  how 
slow  is  the  natural  increase  in  the  present  day. 

CHILDREN    BORN. 


Actual  Numbers. 

TO  EVERY  10,000 

Persons. 

Town. 

Year. 

Jews. 

Gentiles. 

Jews. 

Gentiles. 

Prussia, 

I908 

7,112 

1.262,214 

17-37 

34.22 

Berlin,  - 

I906 

i»744 

49,689 

17.64 

25.60 

Breslau, 

I906 

306 

14,427 

15  03 

32.02 

Bavaria, 

1908 

892 

224,684 

16.12 

34-73 

Netherlands, 

I906 

2,491 

168,461 

23-95 

33-69 

Amsterdam,  - 

I903 

1. 341 

13,881 

22.70 

30.72 

Europ.  Russia 

(not  includ- 

ing Finland 

and  Poland), 

I90I 

136,948 

4,676,310 

36.14 

52.16 

Austria, 

I90O 

39,99o 

927,949 

32.65 

37-23 

Vienna, 

I90O 

2,973 

49,391 

20.23 

32.32 

Hungary, 

I90O 

28,787 

723.931 

33-8i 

39-34 

Budapest,     - 

I90O 

4,701 

18,798 

28.29 

34-99 

Bulgaria, 

I900-02 

1,333 

147,890 

39.60 

39.86 

Roumania,    - 

1897-1902 

9,769 

228,857 

36.63 

40.22 

Bukarest, 

I904-O5 

1,047 

( 

7,047 
Europeans. 

29-51 
]             f 

24.19 

Europeans, 

Algiers, 

I903 

2,471  \ 

17,617 
Mohams. 
126,042 

r\ 

31  55 

Mohams. 
30.56 

70 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


The  above  table  shows  how  (except  in  Algiers  and 
Bukarest)  the  percentage  of  Jewish  births  is  lower 
than  that  of  other  faiths.  The  table  shows  extra- 
ordinary differences  in  the  birth-rate  between  Jews  of 
different  countries ;  that  of  Algiers,  for  instance, 
being  2\  times  as  high  as  that  of  Bavaria  or  Prussia. 
It  cannot  be  climatic  conditions  which  cause  this, 
because  we  find  the  same  divergency  in  neighbouring 
countries  with  similar  climates.  Thus  in  Austria,  for 
instance,  the  birth-rate  varies  from  17.85  per  cent,  in 
Bohemia  to  38.01  per  cent,  in  Galicia  : 


CHILDREN   BORN    IN   THE   YEAR    1900   IN 
DIFFERENT   PROVINCES    OF   AUSTRIA. 


State. 

Actual  Numbers. 

To  every  1,000  Persons  of 
the  General  Population. 

Jews. 

Gentiles. 

Jews. 

Gentiles. 

Bohemia, 
Lower  Austria, 
Bukovina, 
Galicia,  - 

1,655 

3,226 

2,840 

30,842 

217,134 

94,474 

27>I43 

293,326 

I7-85 
20.51 

29-54 
38.01 

34.88 
32.IO 
42.81 
45-°9 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  we  have  to  seek  the  cause  of 
this  divergency  not  in  climatic  but  in  social  differences, 
and  we  have  not  far  to  seek,  when  we  compare  the 
prosperity  and  commercial  development  of  South 
Austria  with  the  utter  industrial  misery  of  Galicia,  and 
bear  in  mind  the  publicly  recognised  fact  that,  accord- 
ing as  a  population  increases  in  well-being  and  culture, 
so  its  birth-rate  decreases :  the  difference  in  the 
material  conditions  brings  about  the  differences  in  the 
birth-rate. 

How  great  these  are  is  perhaps  most  strikingly 
illustrated  by  the  statistics  of  the  town  of  Charlotten- 


THE   DECLINING  BIRTH-RATE 


7* 


burg.  In  the  year  1904-5  in  the  wealthy  eastern 
quarter  the  birth-rate  was  10.95  ;  while  in  the  poor 
workman's  quarter  of  Martinikenfelde  it  was  39.48, 
almost  four  times  as  large.  In  the  same  proportion  as 
the  material  conditions  of  the  Jews  have  improved 
during  the  nineteenth  century,  so  has  their  birth- 
rate decreased.  The  figures  in  the  accompanying 
table  are  illuminating  : 

AVERAGE   YEARLY   NUMBER   OF   BIRTHS 
PER    1,000. 


Christians, 
Jews, 


1822-40. 


40.01 
35-46 


39-55 
34-75 


1878-82. 


37-92 
29.96 


-92. 


[893-97. 


37-03 
23-75 


36.89 
21.61 


36.19 
19.71 


1903-07. 


33.80 
17.79 


They  show  how  in  Prussia  the  Jewish  birth-rate  has 
fallen  from  35.46  per  cent,  in  1822-40  to  17.79  in 
1903-07.  With  the  Christians  the  decrease  is  nominal 
only,  and  they  bring  into  the  world  to-day  almost 
double  as  many  children  as  do  the  Jews.  In  Hungary 
we  have  much  the  same  thing. 

With  this  decrease  in  the  birth-rate  the  Jewish 
family  has  assumed  a  totally  different  character. 
Whereas  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
families  of  4-6  and  more  children  abounded,  to-day 
families  of  2-4  children  are  the  rule.  For  example,  in 
the  year  1828,  40  per  cent,  of  the  Jews  of  Darmstadt 
were  under  14  years  of  age,  in  1867  the  percentage 
had  fallen  to  31.23,  and  in  1905  persons  under  15 
constituted  only  25.86  per  cent,  of  the  Jewish  popula- 
tion. In  less  than  eighty  years  the  average  number  of 
children  to  a  Jewish  family  had  been  reduced  by  almost 
one-half.     The  average  issue  of  a  Jewish  marriage  in 


72 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


Prussia  in  the  years  1875-79  was  4.57  (against  4.68 
among  Christians),  in  1903-07  only  2.47  (against  4.26 
among  Christians).  The  slight  decrease  with  the 
Christians  becomes  an  alarming  one  with  the  Jews  : 
a  change  from  a  system  of  four  and  five  children  to 
one  of  two  and  three  in  a  family  in  the  space  of  less 
than  thirty  years. 

It  would  not  be  sufficient  explanation  to  account 
for  the  falling  off  of  births  by  the  increase  of  prosperity, 
were  there  not  some  intervening  stages  to  connect  the 
two  together.  In  the  first  place  we  have  the  well- 
established  fact  that  the  more  wealthy  and  cultured 
a  population  is,  the  later  it  postpones,  and  the  more 
cautious  is  it  in  entering,  the  bond  of  marriage,  sometimes 
evading  it  altogether.  In  the  countries  where  the  Jews 
are  poor,  marriage  takes  place  much  earlier  and  more 

MARRIAGES. 


Per  i.ooo  Inhabitants 

Actual  J\  umber. 

of  same  Creed. 

In 

Year. 

Jews. 

Gentiles. 

Jews. 

Gentiles. 

Germany, 

I907 

4.512 

499,452 

7.42 

8.32 

Bavaria, 

I907 

422 

50,658 

7.62 

7-83 

Prussia, 

1907 

3,094 

309,945 

7-56 

8.4O 

Berlin,  - 

1906 

763 

22,482 

7.72 

II.58 

Breslau, 

I906 

150 

2,900 

7-37 

8.66 

Hungary, 

I90O 

6,853 

162,628 

8.04 

8.84 

Bohemia, 

I903 

688 

49,494 

7.42 

7-95 

Budapest, 

1900 

1,236 

5.09I 

7-44 

9.48 

Amsterdam,  - 

I904 

378 

3,638 

6.40 

8.05 

Note. — Mixed  marriages  are  counted  half  to  the  Jews,  half  to 
Gentiles. 


regularly  than  amongst  the  Jews  of  more  prosperous 
countries,  partly  because  the  poor  Jews  are  practically 
all  orthodox,   and  in  orthodox  circles  marriage  is  a 


THE   DECLINING  BIRTH-RATE 


73 


specific  religious  duty.  In  Galicia,  for  instance,  there 
is  only  an  infinitesimal  number  of  Jewish  bachelors, 
while  an  old  maid  would  be  looked  upon  as  a  mon- 
strosity. Unfortunately,  reliable  marriage  statistics 
are  lacking  in  the  countries  with  poor  Jewish  popula- 
tions, because  the  Jews  of  these  countries  do  not 
marry  by  the  laws  of  the  land,  but  in  accordance  with 
the  ordinances  of  the  Talmud  (in  Galicia  the  majority 
do  this),  and  such  marriages  are  not  registered  in  the 
official  statistics.  On  the  other  hand,  in  countries 
with  a  well-to-do  Jewish  population,  where  Jews  are 
married  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  the  land, 
statistics  prove — as  the  foregoing  table  has  shown — 
that  Jews  are  behind  Christians  in  marrying.  The 
low  rate  of  marriage  among  Jews  is  the  more 
remarkable,  seeing  that  since  they  have  fewer 
children  than  the  Christians,  they  ought  to  have  a 
higher  marriage  rate.  In  Berlin,  ist  December,  1900, 
of  married  inhabitants  over  the  age  of  20  years 
there  were  : 

60.38  per  cent.  Christian  males. 
51.62  per  cent.  Jewish  males. 
53.83  per  cent.  Christian  females. 
52.51  per  cent.  Jewish  females. 


In  Copenhagen  in  1906  : 


Males. 

Females. 

Jewish. 

Christian. 

Jewish. 

Christian. 

20-25  years  of  age, 

92.4 

89.O 

79-7 

77.8 

25-30       ., 

56.3 

47.2 

47.1 

48.2 

30-35       „ 

38.7 

24-5 

32.3 

33-o 

35-4°        M 

26.I 

16.5 

35-i 

27.1 

40-45       » 

l6.2 

12.6 

35-4 

22.5 

74  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

We  see  from  this  that  Jews  and  Jewesses  remain 
single  to  a  greater  extent  than  Christians  ;  again,  the 
Jews,  even  when  they  do  marry,  do  so  later  in  life  ; 
thus,  of  the  married  inhabitants  of  Berlin  on  December, 
ist,  1900,  under  30  (or,  to  be  exact,  born  after  1870) 
there  were  : 

15.56  per  cent.  Christian  males. 
6.89  per  cent.  Jewish  males. 
24.34  per  cent.  Christian  females. 
20.41  per  cent.  Jewish  females. 

It  is  a  palpable  as  well  as  a  statistically  established 
fact  that  the  issue  of  late  marriages  is  smaller 
than  that  of  early  ones.1  Nevertheless,  the  frequent 
cases  of  celibacy  and  of  late  marriage  must  not  be 
looked  upon  as  the  only  causes  of  the  small  number 
of  children.  The  chief  cause  is  undoubtedly  illicit 
sexual  intercourse,  which  has  attained  extraordinary 
proportions  during  the  nineteenth  century,  principally 
in  the  large  towns,  and  here  again  among  the  well-to- 
do  classes.  The  Jews  of  Western  and  Central  Europe, 
living  as  they  do  in  large  towns  and  in  greater  luxury 
than  the  Christians,  are  affected  more  nearly  by  the 
spread  of  this  practice,  while  with  the  Christians  the 
consequences  are  to  a  certain  extent  nullified  by  the 
high  percentage  of  the  population  living  in  the  villages 
and  small  towns,  where  illicit  sexual  intercourse  is 
unknown.  As  long  as  the  birth-rate  in  the  country- 
side continues  to  be  high,  the  general  birth-rate  is  not 
much  affected  by  the  falling  off  in  the  large  towns. 
We  see  how  far  behind  the  birth-rate  of  the  country 

1  Compare  Rubin  and  Westergaard,  p.  95 ;    and  Galton,  Genius 
and  Heredity,  p.  340. 


THE  DECLINING  BIRTH-RATE 


75 


population  is  that  of  the  towns  by  the  following  table 
from  Roumania  : 


In  the  Year. 

Jews. 

Gentiles. 

In  Bukarest,     -         -         -         - 
In  the  Villages,          - 

I904-I905 
1897-1902 

29.51 
38.69 

24.I9 
4I.64 

In  addition  to  the  above  reasons  there  may  also  be 
physiological  causes  which  would  account  for  the 
barrenness  or  decreasing  fertility  of  the  wealthier 
Jews.  Though  we  may  doubt  whether  there  is  any 
truth  in  the  contention  that  better  nourishment  leads 
to  barrenness,  there  is  scarcely  any  doubt  that  the 
prevalent  nervousness  of  the  educated  classes  is  pre- 
judicial to  the  propagation  of  the  species  ;  especially 
the  harmful  effects  of  not  exercising  the  natural 
functions — more  often  found  with  men  of  the  upper 
classes  who  marry  late,  than  with  the  early  marrying 
lower  classes— these  are  as  potent  factors  as  the  ever- 
increasing  physical  incapacity  of  the  society  woman  to 
bear  children. 

B.  The  low  death-rate  of  the  Jews  partially  equalises 
the  effect  of  the  low  birth-rate. 

The  low  birth-rate  of  Jews— in  some  countries  lower 
even  than  that  of  the  French  (compare  Prussia  with 
17.37  per  cent,  as  against  France  with  22.1  per  cent,  in 
1891-1900)— would  result  in  a  great  falling  off  in  the 
Jewish  population,  far  greater  even  than  we  are  at 
present  experiencing,  were  the  ill  effects  not  to  a 
certain  extent  modified  by  a  low  death-rate. 

We  see  from  the  accompanying  table  that  the  Jews 
everywhere  (if  we  except  the  Mohammedans  of  Algiers) 


76 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


DEATHS. 


ACTUA 

..  Figures. 

Per 

1,000  Inhabitants. 

In 

Year. 

Jews. 

Gentiles. 

Jews. 

Gentiles. 

Prussia, 

1907 

5.717 

675,232 

13.96 

I8.3I 

Bavaria,     - 

I907 

7°3 

137.993 

I2.7O 

21-33 

European  Russia 

(not  including 

Finland      and 

Poland, )- 

I90I 

68,492 

3,156,436 

18.08 

32.51 

Hungary,  - 

1900 

14.459 

500,775 

16.98 

27.21 

Austria, 

f 

I900 

22,506 

636,174 

Christian 

18.37 

25-52 

Christian. 

Algiers,      -         -J 

1897-99 

1,420 

12,457 

29.12 

39.16 

1 

inclusive. 

Mohammed. 

7I-837 

Moham. 
19.08 

Frankfort  on  the 

Main, 

I907 

296 

4,79o 

I2.6l 

I5-38 

Budapest,  - 

I900 

2,322 

12,480 

13-97 

23.23 

Rou  mania,           { 

1896- 
I902 

}   5.557 

159,337 

20.84 

28.OO 

Bukarest,  - 

I904-05 

690 

6,272 

14.44 

26.27 

Berlin, 

I905 

1,310 

33.  I41 

13-45 

17.08 

Berlin, 

I906 

1,302 

3i. 346 

13-17 

16  15 

Breslau, 

I905-06 

325 

10,200 

15-97 

22.64 

Charlottenburg,  - 

I904-05 

180 

2,767 

H-33 

12.42 

Amsterdam, 

I904 

692 

7,611 

11.72 

16.85 

Vienna, 

I90O 

1,841 

32,462 

12.53 

21.25 

Lemberg,  - 

I903 

829 

3,249 

193 

29.O 

have  a  considerably  lower  death-rate  than  non-Jews — a 
phenomenon  which  caused  a  Roumanian  statistician 
to  remark  :  "  The  Jews  apparently  enjoy  the  privilege 
of  a  special  immunity  from  early  death."  In  con- 
sidering the  figures  we  must  not  forget  that  infants 
(under  1  year)  always  constitute  a  large  proportion  of 
the  death-rate,  and  that  the  low  birth-rate  of  the 
Jews  would  explain  in  part  the  lower  death-rate. 
And,  besides  this,  Jewish  infants  and  children  have 
everything  in  their  favour.     In  Prussia  in   1882  we 


THE   DECLINING  BIRTH-RATE  77 

find  that  in  every  1,000  legitimate  births  (including 
still-born  children),  there  survived  over  the  first 
year: 


Protestants,    - 

-  753  boys. 

789  girls. 

Catholics, 

-  758  boys. 

796  girls. 

Jews,      - 

-  814  boys. 

843  girls. 

In  Frankfurt-am-Main  in  1907,  of  every  100  infants 
(under  1  year)  there  died  :  Protestants  11.86,  Catholics 
11.67,  Jews  4.56  ;  while,  in  Breslau  in  1906,  among 
non-Jews  21.72,  among  Jews  6.21. 

The  causes  of  the  smaller  infant  mortality  among 
Jews  are  not  to  be  put  down  to  any  difference  of  ■: 
race,  but  rather  to  the  absence  of  drunkenness  in  the 
parents,  and  the  better  nourishment  and  care  which  the 
poor  Jews  bestow  on  their  children.  Self-sacrificing 
care  for  the  children  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
traits  of  Jewish  family  life.  It  can  even  be  proved 
statistically.  It  is  well  known  that  of  all  infant 
scourges  stomach  and  bowel  troubles  are  the  most 
deadly,  and  these  in  their  turn  are  for  the  most  part 
directly  traceable  to  insufficient  nourishment.  In 
Berlin  in  1905,  8.48  per  cent,  of  Christian  babies  under 
1  year  of  age  died  in  their  first  year  of  stomach  and 
bowel  disorders,  as  against  2.57  per  cent.  Jewish ; 
and  in  Budapest  between  the  years  1886-1890  in 
every  100  children  under  5  years  of  age  4.14  Catholic 
children  died  of  rupture,  against  1.44  Jewish  children. 
So  we  see  that  Jews  pay  far  more  attention  to  the 
care  of  these  and  other  childish  ailments  than 
Christians. 

A  further  proof  that  the  small  infant  mortality 
among  Jews  is  directly  traceable  to  economic  and 
social  causes  is  to  be  seen  in  the  fate  of  illegitimate 


78  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

Jewish  children  ;  here,  where  care  and  solicitude  for 
the  infant  is  usually  lacking,  mortality  is  as  high  and 
even  higher  than  among  non- Jewish  children.  In 
Prussia  in  the  year  1882 — the  same  year  in  which  we 
have  just  demonstrated  the  superiority  of  the  Jews 
in  rearing  legitimate  children — we  find  that  of  every 
1,000  illegitimate  births,  there  survived  over  the  first 
year  : 

Protestants,  -  -  606  boys.  642  girls. 
Catholics,  -  -  588  boys.  617  girls. 
Jews,      -         -         -  578  boys.        607  girls. 

We  see  from  this  that  illegitimate  Jewish  babies  have 
less  chance  of  living  than  any  otheis. 

The  same  gulf  between  the  chances  of  life  of  legiti- 
mate and  illegitimate  Jewish  children  is  found  in 
Budapest,  1901-1905,  where  of  every  thousand  chil- 
dren born  alive,  there  died  : 

Catholics,  -      161. 9  legitimate.    176.8  illegitimate. 
Jews,         -        92.0  „  1434 

Other  creeds,  136.2         ,,  148-5 

We  can  get  an  exact  picture  of  the  proportions  of 
mortality  by  dividing  up  different  groups  according  to 
ages  :  thus,  infants  (0-1  year),  children  (1-15  years), 
adults  (over  15  years),  and  examining  the  proportion 
of  deaths  among  each  separately. 

The  statistics  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Hessen  and  of 
the  town  of  Budapest  enable  us  to  compare  the  mor- 
tality of  Jews  and  Christians  at  various  ages,  thereby 
giving  us  an  accurate  idea  of  conditions.  The  figures 
of  Hessen  in  the  accompanying  table  speak  for  them- 
selves, and  show  how  the  Jews  by  superior  care  and 


THE   DECLINING  BIRTH-RATE 


79 


nourishment  save  many  infant  lives  which  non-Jews 
lose  in  infants  under  5  years. 


Total  number 

Average  Number  of  Deaths 

of 

to  every  1 

,000  Lives. 

Number  of  Jews 

Jewi.sh  Deaths 

(not  including 

still-births  in 

1903-06). 

Age  in 

Years. 

according  to 
Census  1905. 

Jews 
1903-06. 

General 

Population 

1905-06. 

m. 

f. 

m. 

f. 

m.      1      f. 

m.      |      f. 

under     i 

206 

209 

75 

61 

75-5 

I48. 1 

1  to 

5 

784 

838 

14 

19 

4-5 

5-7 

15  3 

14.9 

5  >, 

IO 

1,044 

I,OI3 

5 

10 

1.2 

2.5 

3-0 

2.7 

10  ,, 

.         15 

1,125 

1,169 

3 

8 

0.7 

i-7 

1.8 

2.6 

15  ,, 

20 

1,007 

1,032 

11 

9 

2-7 

2.2 

3-6 

3-6 

20  ,, 

.         30 

2,229 

2,220 

28 

26 

3-i 

2.9 

5-i 

5-6 

30  „ 

,       4° 

1,752 

1,892 

26 

49 

3-7 

6-5 

6.6 

7.2 

40  „ 

50 

1,402 

1,533 

37 

40 

6.6 

6-5 

11. 8 

9-4 

50  „ 

,       60 

1,104 

i,338 

89 

87 

20.2 

16.3 

23.1 

17-3 

60  „ 

.       70 

869 

956 

162 

127 

46.6 

33-2 

40.5 

41.8 

70,, 

,       80 

361 

389 

130 

145 

90.0 

93-2 

97-9 

96.8 

80  and  o^ 

rer 

no 

117 

88 

100 

200.0 

213.7 

231-7 

223  1 

Total, 

11,991 

12,706 

668 

681 

13-9 

13-4 

17.4 

16.4 

The  weeding  out  which  goes  on  among  Christian 
infants  from  0-5  years  of  age  improves  the  chances  of 
living  of  the  succeeding  age-divisions  until  the  age  of 
20,  while  with  the  Jews  there  is  a  certain  falling  off 
at  this  age,  and  many  die  who,  thanks  to  good  nourish- 
ment and  care,  had  survived  the  difficult  first  years. 
Between  the  ages  of  20-50  years  the  mortality  of 
Jewish  men  is  almost  one-half,  of  Jewish  women 
one-third,  less  than  that  of  Christian  men  and  women. 
After  the  fiftieth  year  the  chances  are  about  equal  for 
Jew  and  Christian,  though  there  remains  a  slight 
balance  in  favour  of  the  Jew.  The  following  table 
for  Budapest 1  shows  how  the  Jews  (with  the  exception 


1  Compare  Elias  Auerbach,  Die  Sterblichkeit  der  Juden  in  Budapest, 
1901-1905. 


8o 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


only  of  male  Jews  from  10-15  years,  and  of  Jewesses 
between  the  ages  of  50-60  and  over  80)  have  at  all 
ages  a  lower  death-rate  than  the  Catholics. 

MORTALITY   IN    BUDAPEST. 


TO  EVERY  I.OOO  IN  EACH  DIVISION  OF  AGE. 

Number  of  Deaths. 

Catholics. 

Jews. 

Male. 

Female. 

Male. 

Female. 

0-5  years,    - 

89.9 

76.7 

38.5 

36.4 

5-io       , 

,     - 

7-8 

6.3 

3-9 

4.6 

10-15     . 

1 

2.6 

2.9 

3-0 

2.0 

15-20     > 

,     - 

4.2 

4-5 

3-0 

2.6 

20-30     , 

, 

8.4 

8.3 

5-2 

4.4 

30-40     , 

» 

14.1 

10.6 

7-1 

5-6 

40-50     > 

,     -         -         -         - 

27.7 

14. 1 

12.9 

10.2 

50-60     , 

, 

36.8 

19.6 

24.7 

20.3 

60-70     , 

,     - 

62.9 

41.4 

41.9 

34-9 

70-80     , 

1 

114.9 

91.6 

104.7 

67-3 

Over  80  years, 

212. 1 

H5-9 

196.9 

182.8 

The  Jews  have  the  greatest  advantage  in  the  division 
0-5  years.  And  it  is  worthy  of  remark,  also,  that 
with  the  Catholics,  men  die  in  far  greater  numbers  than 
women  between  the  ages  of  40-60  years — probably 
because  of  their  employment  in  unhealthy  or  dangerous 
occupations,  whereas  with  Jews  of  those  ages  there 
is  no  great  difference  in  the  mortality  of  men  and 
women. 

Nevertheless,  the  small  infant  mortality  among  Jews 
does  not  always  mean  a  lower  death-rate  ;  it  some- 
times produces  the  opposite  effect,  for,  even  if  numbers 
of  weak  children  are  preserved  to  life  by  careful 
tending,  they  usually  die  off  before  reaching  old  or 
middle  age.  This  explains  why,  as  the  table  shows, 
the  death-rate  of  Prussian  Jews  over  15  has  slowly 
risen  (from  10.13  per  cent,  to  11.30  per  cent.),  whereas 


THE   DECLINING  BIRTH-RATE 


81 


within  the  same  space  of  time  the  death-rate  among 
Christians  has  fallen  from  11.82  per  cent,  to  9.69  per 


Deaths  in  Prussia 
per  1,000. 

1878-82. 

1888-92. 

Under 

i5- 

Over 
i5- 

Total. 

Under 
IS* 

Over 
IS- 

Total. 

Christians,- 
Jews, 

13-41 

7.40 

11.82 
IO.I3 

25-23 

17-53 

12.17 

5-o6 

II.09 
IO.65 

23.26 
1571 

Deaths  in  Prussia 
per  1,000. 

1898-1902. 

1903-07. 

Under 
15. 

Over 

is- 

Total. 

Under 
IS- 

Over. 
15- 

Total. 

Christians,- 
Jews, 

IO.43 
3.26 

IO. II 
II.03 

20.54 
I4.29 

9.09 
2.63 

9.69 
II.30 

18.78 
13-93 

cent.  Between  the  years  1903- 1907  the  Jewish  death- 
rate  for  adults  over  15  years  is  higher  than  that  of 
Christians  (11.30  per  cent,  against  9.69  per  cent.). 

C.  Decrease  in  numbers  a  result  of  lower  birth-rate. 

In  consequence  of  their  low  birth-rate  the  Jews  in 
many  countries  are  behind  the  Christians  in  natural 
increase. 

The  table 1  overleaf  shows  us  that  this  is  felt 
most  in  Prussia  and  Bavaria ;  in  Russia  they  are 
slightly  behind  (Russian  Christians  being  extra- 
ordinarily fruitful),  but  in  Austria,  Hungary  and 
Algiers  the  Jews  multiply  to  a  greater  extent  than  the 
Christians. 


1  In  certain  towns,  instead  of  natural  increase  we  find  natural 
decrease  ;  in  Breslau,  for  instance,  in  1906  there  were  339  still- 
born Jewish  children  against  306  born  alive,  making  a  decrease  of 
1.62  per  cent,  to  the  Jewish  population. 

F 


82 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


NATURAL  INCREASE  OF  THE  JEWISH    POPULATION 

PER  THOUSAND  INHABITANTS,  COMPARED 

WITH  OTHER  CREEDS. 


Births. 

Deaths. 

Natural 
Increase. 

Country. 

Year. 

Non- 

Non- 

Non- 

Jews. 

Jews. 

Jews. 

Jews. 

Jews. 

Jews. 

Prussia, 

1907 

17-37 

33-96 

13.96 

18.3I 

3-41 

I5-65 

Bavaria, 

1906 

18.47 

35-91 

12.36 

2I.39 

6.11 

14-52 

Roumania,  - 

1896-1902 

36.63 

40.22 

20.84 

28.OO 

15-79 

12.22 

Eur.    Russia 

(not  includ- 

ing Finland 

and  Poland), 

1901 

36.14 

52.16 

18.08 

32.51 

18.06 

I9.65 

Austria, 

1900 

3265 

37-23 

1837 

25-52 

14.28 

II. 71 

Hungary,     - 

( 

1900 

33-81 

39-34 

Europ. 

16.98 

27.2I 
Europ. 

16.83 

12.13 

Europ. 

Algiers,         1 

1903 

43-25 

31-55 

Moham. 

20.58 

23-14 

Moham. 

22.67 

8.4I 

Moham. 

{ 

30-56 

19.66 

IO.90 

If  we  analyse  conditions  in  Prussia  we  find  that  the 
excess  of  births  over  deaths  amounts  on  an  average 
annually  per  thousand  : 


1820-66. 

1888-92. 

1893-97. 

1898- 
1902. 

1903-07. 

/^including      illegiti- 

Christians 

mate  children  and 
children   of    mixed 

— 

13-77 

1505 

15-65 

15.02 

marriages  according 

Jews 

to    religion   of   the 

Imother,  - 

16.80 

8.04 

6.88 

5-42 

3-86 

The  excess  of  births  has  thus  increased  with  the 
Christians  until  within  the  last  five  years,  whereas 
with  the  Jews  it  has  rapidly  decreased. 


THE   DECLINING  BIRTH-RATE 


83 


The  small  increase  of  Jews  in  Germany  and  the 
allied  States  is  evidenced  in  the  census  returns,  which 
shows  how  the  Jews  are  a  dwindling  fraction  of  the 
population.  Thus,  in  every  10,000  of  the  total 
population  the  Jews  numbered  : 


In 

1870. 

1880. 

1890. 

1900. 

1905. 

Germany, 

Prussia, 

Bavaria, 

125 
132 
104 

124 
133 

IOI 

115 

124 

96 

104 
114 

89 

100 
no 

85 

This  decrease  in  numbers  would  be  still  greater  if  the 
Jews  of  Germany  were  not  reinforced  by  immigrants 
from  Eastern  Europe. 

The  deduction  from  all  this  is  that,  inasmuch  as  the 
Jews  until  a  few  decades  ago  were  remarkably  prolific, 
they  have  lost  this  quality  wherever  they  have  acquired 
culture  and  prosperity — when  they  have  thrown  them- 
selves into  the  cultural  and  industrial  life  of  the  land. 
The  four  different  sections  which  we  classified  in  our 
introduction,  as  marking  the  various  grades  of  dis- 
integration among  the  Jews,  may  be  taken  as  so 
many  stages  in  matrimonial  fertility,  from  large 
families  down  to  families  of  four,  three  and  two 
children.  With  the  first  class— the  poor  orthodox 
Jews  of  Eastern  Europe — families  of  from  five  to  ten 
children  are  the  rule,  while  with  the  rich  Jews  of  the 
capitals  the  two-in-family  rule  holds  good.  It  follows 
that  wherever  the  Jews  have  to  recruit  principally 
from  this  class  their  numbers  must  always  decrease  in 
proportion  to  the  general  population.  This  is-  the 
fact  to-day  in  all  the  countries  of  Western  Europe 


84  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

(Germany,  Holland,  Denmark,  etc.),  when    immigra- 
tion does  not  come  to  the  rescue. 

Hitherto  the  Jews,  by  their  great  natural  fertility, 
have  always  been  able  to  make  good  the  losses  they 
suffered  by  assimilation.  When  this  source  has  given 
out,  how  will  they  fill  in  the  breaches  ? 


CHAPTER  V. 

DISPERSION. 

A.  Immigration  to  the  United  States. 

Migrations  play  a  large  part  in  the  absorption  of 
the  Jews.  By  these  we  do  not  mean  merely  the  ordinary 
emigrations  which,  during  the  first  two-thirds  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  took  the  Jews  of  Eastern  Europe 
to  Germany,  Holland,  France,  England  and  America 
(such,  for  instance,  recorded  by  the  J  ewish  Encyclopaedia, 
vol.  viii.  p.  584,  the  emigration  in  1871-1880  of  41,057 
Jews  to  the  United  States).  We  mean  the  migrations 
en  masse  which  began  in  the  year  1881,  impelled  by 
the  drastic  anti- Jewish  laws  imposed  by  the  Russian 
government,  and  by  economic  distress.  These  migra- 
tions have  only  one  parallel  in  the  whole  of  Jewish 
history,  namely,  those  in  the  time  of  Jesus  Christ,  when 
multitudes  of  Jews  were  uprooted  from  Palestine  to 
be  planted  along  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean. 
No  less  than  two  million  Jews  have,  during  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century — since  1881 — exchanged  their 
home  in  Eastern  Europe  for  homes  in  the  United 
States,  Canada,  the  Argentine,  South  Africa,  England 
and  France. 

The  main  stream  of  the  emigrants  flowed  into  the 
United  States  of  America.  Jewry  there  in  the  year 
1880  consisted  of  about  230,000  souls,  old  established 


86  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

|  Portuguese  and  German  Jews,  who  had  emigrated  in 
considerable  numbers  between  1840  and  1870.  In  the 
ten  years  from  July  1st,  1898,  to  June  30th,  1908, 
alone,  932,631  Jewish  immigrants  were  passed  through 
the  ports  of  the  United  States.  If  we  add  to  these  all 
the  Jews  who  were  registered  not  as  Hebrews  but  as 
Germans,  French  and  so  forth,  and  those  who  came 
into  the  United  States  via  Canada,  we  can  say  that 
one  single  decade  brought  one  million  Jews  from  Eastern 
Europe  to  the  United  States.  Of  the  932,631  immi- 
grants there  came  : 

From  Russia,         -        -  666,557  =7I47  Per  cent- 
„      Austria-Hungary,    159,229  =17.07 
„      Roumania,  -        -     51,736  =5-55 
Other  Countries,  -    55,109  =  5.91 


Before  1898 — for  which  time  we  have  accurate 
statistics  only  of  the  Russian  Jews — the  emigration 
was  on  a  smaller  scale.  It  began  in  1880-81  with  8,193 
emigrants  from  Russia  ;  in  1891-92 — the  year  of  the 
recrudescence  of  Jewish  persecution  in  Russia — it  rose 
to  76,417,  then  fell  to  27,221  in  the  year  1897-98. 
Altogether  from  July  1st,  1880,  to  June  30th,  1898, 
there  came  526,120  Jews  from  Russia  to  the  United 
States,  so  that  if  we  add  to  these  the  approximate 
number  of  immigrants  from  other  countries — the 
statistics  of  which  are  not  to  hand — we  may  roughly 
estimate  the  total  number  of  Jewish  immigrants  during 
the  eighteen  years  from  1880-1898  at  700,000. 

Of  the  1,700,000  Jews  who  have  immigrated  into 

3  the  United  States  during  the  twenty-eight  years  from 

1880-1908,    only    a    small    fraction    have    returned. 

Whereas   non- Jewish   immigrants   to    a   large   extent 

only  go  to  the  United  States  to  earn  money  there,  and 


DISPERSION 


87 


then  return  to  their  homes  (as  do  the  Syrians  and 
Italians)  ;  Jews  go  there  to  settle.  Thus,  for  instance, 
in  the  critical  year  1907-1908,  when  there  were  vast 
emigrations  from  the  United  States,  387,371  non-Jews 
and  only  7,702  Jews  returned  to  the  land  of  their 
origin. 

NUMBERS    OF   JEWISH    IMMIGRANTS    INTO   THE 
UNITED   STATES. 


From  1st  July  to 

Country 

of  Origin. 

Total. 

30th  June. 

Russia. 

Austria- 
Hungary. 

Roumania. 

Other 
Countries. 

1898-1899, 

37.4*5 

24»275 

11,071 

1,343 

726 

1899-I90O, 

60,764 

37.0H 

16,920 

6,183 

650 

I90O-I901, 

58,098 

37,660 

13,006 

6,827 

605 

I90I-I902, 

57,688 

37.846 

12,848 

6,589 

405 

I902-I903, 

76,203 

47,689 

18,759 

8,562 

1,193 

I903-I904, 

106,236 

77.544 

20,2II 

6,446 

2,035 

I904-1905, 

129,910 

92,388 

17.352 

3.854 

i6,3261 

I905-1906, 

153,748 

125.234 

14,884 

3,872 

9,758  2 

I906-I907, 

149,182 

114.932 

18,885 

3.605 

11,760s 

I907-I908, 

103.387 

71,978 

15.293 

4.455 

11,661  4 

1  Of  these  14,299  from  Great  Britain. 

2  ,,  6,113 

3  „  7.032 

4  ,,  6,260  ,, 


The  largest  contingent  of  these  Jewish  emigrants  to 
the  United  States  comes — as  we  have  already  shown — 
from  Russia  ;  but  the  migrations  from  Galicia  and 
Roumania  are  very  considerable.  From  Galicia,  in 
particular,  emigration  has  been  going  on  on  a  very 
large  scale  in  recent  times.  We  can  estimate  the 
number  of  Galician  emigrants  with  approximate 
accuracy  by  comparing  the  figures  of  the  census  of 
31st  December,  1890  (772,213),  with  that  of  31st 
December,  1900  (811,371).     Taking  into  consideration 


88  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

the  registered  births  and  deaths  during  the  years 
1891-1900  (315,073  births,  166,966  deaths),  we  have 
here  a  deficit  of  108,949  souls,  which  must  be  attributed 
to  emigration.  This  emigration  is  directed  almost 
exclusively  to  the  United  States  ;  America  has  become 
such  a  familiar  idea  to  the  Galician  Jew,  and  the 
voyage  thither  such  an  every-day  matter,  that  he 
talks  of  it  almost  as  of  an  ordinary  business  journey. 
Several  small  Galician  towns  have  been  reduced  to 
half  their  number  of  Jewish  inhabitants  by  emigration, 
and  there  is  hardly  a  Jew  in  Galicia  who  has  not  some 
relative  in  America. 

Emigration  on  a  large  scale  from  Roumania  started 
in  1899,  the  incentive  being  the  passing  of  legal  restric- 
tions which  still  further  reduced  the  political  and 
industrial  rights  of  the  Jews.  An  official  report  of  the 
Roumanian  minister  of  the  Interior  (Moniteur  Officiel 
du  13  aout,  1906)  gives  the  number  of  Jews  who  left 
Roumania  during  the  seven  yeais  1899-1905  as 
55,000.  Of  these  about  40,000  went  to  the  United 
States,  the  remainder  to  England  and  other  countries. 

Jewish  emigration  to  the  United  States  usually  takes 
the  following  form  :  the  young  working  members  of  a 
family  go  out  first,  who,  when  they  succeed  in  making 
a  living,  send  for  the  rest  of  the  family  to  come  out 
after  them.  For  example,  in  the  year  1907-1908, 
among  103,387  Jewish  emigrants,  no  less  than  63,492 
had  received  their  boat  tickets  from  relatives  who 
were  already  living  in  America.  This  labouring 
emigrant  class  varies  in  age  from  14  to  45  years  ;  in 
1907-08  69.05  per  cent,  of  the  total  of  Jewish  emigrants 
belonged  to  this  class,  while  25.16  per  cent,  were 
children  under  14  years,  and  only  5.79  per  cent,  over 
45  years. 


DISPERSION  89 

By  far  the  greatest  number  of  Jews  settle  in  the 
State  of  New  York  in  preference  to  any  other.  In 
1907-08  there  emigrated  to 

New  York,    -----  62,697  Jews. 

Pennsylvania,        -  10,193 

Massachusetts,      -  6,581 

Illinois,          ------  5,928 

New  Jersey,  -----  3,696 

Ohio,    ------  2,228 

Maryland,     -----  1,682 

Connecticut,-         -  I»599 

Missouri,       -----  1,570 

Texas,  ------  1,206 

and  all  the  other  States  together  received  only  6,107 
Jewish  immigrants. 

The  professions  they  belonged  to  were  : 

Independent  professions  (musicians, 

actors,  teachers),    -        -        -  713 

Skilled  trades,       -  36,193 

Varied  callings,     -  19>759 

Of  no  calling  (including  children),  46,722 

Of  the  trained  industries,  men's  tailors  predominated 
with  14,882  ;    after  these  came  : 

Cabinet-makers,    -        -        -        -  2,907 

Bootmakers,-         -  1,981 

Ladies'  tailors  (male  and  female),  -  2,310 

Clerks  and  bookkeepers,        -        -  1,968 

Painters  and  glaziers,    -        -        -  1,257 

Seamstresses,         -  1,268 

Of  the  "  varied  callings,"  servants  formed  the  largest 
contingent,  7,463  persons  ;    after  these,  day  labourers, 


go  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

6,824  persons  ;   pedlars  and  brokers,  2,416  ;   and  i,< 
agricultural  labourers. 

The  result  of  the  heavy  immigration  is  seen  in  the 
extraordinary  increase  in  the  Jewish  population  of  the 
United  States.     This  is  estimated  :x 


In  th 

3  Yeai 

> 
» 

1818 
1824 
1826 
1840 

3y  Mordechai  M.  Noah 
,,  Salomon  Etting 
,,  Isaac  C.  Harby 
,,  The  American  Almanac  - 

at         3,000 
6,000 
6,000 

,,        15,000 

1 
> 
• 

1848 
1880 
1888 

„  M.  A.  Berk     - 

,,  Wm.  B   Hackenburg 

„  Isaac  Markens 

,,        50,000 
230,000 
400,000 

» 

1897 
1902 

,,  David  Sulzberger    - 
, ,  The  A  merican  Jewish  Year 
Book          - 

„      937»8o° 
,,  1,136,240 

, 

1907 

,,                    »>                  ,» 

„  1,777.185 

Of  this  population  no  fewer  than  1,000,000  live  in 
New  York,  which  has  thus  the  largest  Jewish  popula- 
tion of  any  town  in  the  world.  After  New  York  the 
towns  which  contain  the  largest  numbers  of  Jews  in 
the  United  States  are  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  Boston 
and  Baltimore. 

B.  Emigration  to  England. 

After  the  United  States,  England  receives  the 
greatest  flow  of  Jewish  emigrants.  We  have  no 
reliable  figures,  as  the  English  immigration  statistics 
are  registered  not  by  religion  but  by  national  extrac- 
tion ;  even  so  they  convey  a  false  impression,  because 
many  of  the  immigrants  only  stop  in  England  in  transit 
for  America.  Thus  when  the  official  English  immigra- 
tion report 2  says  that  the  immigrants  from  Russia, 

xFrom  the  American  Jewish  Year  Book  for  5667  (Philadelphia, 
1908). 

8  Compare  Report  to  the  Board  of  Trade  on  Emigration  and  Immi- 
gration during  1904,  London,  1905. 


DISPERSION  91 

Poland  and  Roumania  are  practically  all  Jews,  and 
puts  their  numbers  at : 


Russians  and  Poles, 
Roumanians, 


1902. 


25>633   20,914   28,511 
3,216    1,162    1,282 


30,046 
565 


46,095 
513 


these  numbers  are  considerably  higher  than  the  actual 
number  of  Jewish  immigrants  who  settle  permanently 
in  England.  This  can  be  seen  from  the  following 
figures  :  the  number  of  Jews  in  England  in  1905  was 
fairly  accurately  estimated  at  250,000,  in  1880  at 
40,000,  and  in  1891  at  about  101,000.  Taking  into 
account  the  excess  of  births  over  deaths,  the  number 
of  immigrants  during  the  years  1891-1905  can  only 
have  been  about  100,000,  while  the  number  of  registered 
immigrant  Russians  and  Poles  from  1891-1904  is  given 
as  259,406. 1  London  has  the  greatest  number  of  Jews, 
150,000;  then  comes  Manchester  with  30,000,  Leeds  with 
25,000,  Glasgow  and  Liverpool  each  with  about  7,000. 

C.  General  summary. 

In  the  following  table  an  attempt  has  been  made  to 
show  the  effect  of  emigration  and  immigration  on  the 
countries  most  affected.  Here  we  see  that  from  1881  to 
1908  the  number  of  Jews  who  left  their  native  countries 
amounted  to  2,136,000 ;  the  principal  immigrant 
country  being  the  United  States  with  1,700,000 
immigrants ;  the  principal  emigrant  country  Russia, 
with  1,545,000  emigrants.  The  United  States,  England, 
Canada,  and  South  Africa  together  received  1,950,000 
Jews,  i.e.  91.4  per  cent,  of  the  total  immigrants. 

xMany  Russian  Jews  bound  for  America  stay  a  few\  weeks  or 
months  in  London  from  poverty  and  from  the  conditions  imposed  by 
some  of  the  steamship  companies.  See  Halpern,  Die  'Jiidischen 
Arbeiter  in  London. 


92  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

During  the  years  1881-1908  Jews  migrated  : 


From 

To 

Russia. 

Austria- 
Hungary. 

Rou- 
mania. 

Other 
Countries. 

Total. 

United  States, 
Canada,  - 
Argentine, 

1,250,000 
30,000 
20,000 

250,000 
5,000 

75,000 

125,000 

5.000 

10,000 

1,700,000 
40,000 
30,000 

America,  - 

England, 
Germany, 
France,  - 
Belgium,- 

1,300,000 

150,000 

15,000 

30,000 

5,000 

255,000 

10,000 
25,000 
10,000 

75,000 
20,000 

140,000 

10,000 

10,000 
5.000 

1,770,000 

190,000 
40,000 
50,000 
10,000 

West  Europe,  - 

South  Africa,  - 
Egypt,    - 

200,000 

15,000 
IO.OOO 

45,000 

20,000 

25,000 

5,000 
10,000 

290,000 

20,000 
20,000 

Africa, 
Palestine, 

25,000 
20,000 

5,000 

I.OOO 

15,000 
10,000 

40,000 
36,000 

Total, 

1.545.000 

305,000 

96,000 

190,000 

2,136,000 

Statistics  of  the  immigration  of  Jews  to  Germany 
are  not  to  hand.  We  know,  however,  that  immigra- 
tion from  Eastern  Europe  must  go  on,  from  the  following 
circumstances  :  in  the  year  1900  it  was  ascertained 
that  there  were  41,113  alien  Jews  in  Germany,  of  which 
number  17,410  had  been  born  in  Austria,  12,752  in 
Russia  and  Finland.  In  Prussia  the  census  of  1905 
registered  38,844  foreign  Jews  ;  of  these  16,665  were 
Austrian,  13,185  Russian,  and  3,386  Hungarian.  On 
1st  December,  1900,  Berlin  alone  contained  11,651 
foreign  Jews  among  a  total  of  only  35,142  foreigners. 
The  kingdom  of  Saxony  receives  many  Austrian  Jews  ; 
thus  in  the  year  1905  in  Leipzig,  of  7,676  Jews,  4,843 
( =  63.09  per  cent.)  were  foreign  (3,010  Austrian,  1,401 
Russian,  117  Hungarian,  315  other  nationalities).     In 


DISPERSION  93 

Dresden,  of  3,514  Jews,  1,715  (  =  48.80  per  cent.)  were 
foreign.  In  Munich  in  the  year  1905,  of  10,056  Jews, 
2,388  ( =  25.74  per  cent.)  were  foreign  born  (mostly 
Russian  and  Austrian) ;  of  the  Christians  only  4.3  per 
cent,  were  foreign  born. 

D.  The  influence  of  emigration  on  assimilation. 

The  migration  en  masse  of  the  Jews  of  Eastern 
Europe  to  these  highly  developed  English-speaking 
countries  means  something  more  than  mere  change  of 
locality.  Though  the  full  significance  has  hardly  yet 
been  appreciated,  there  is  no  doubt  that  this  migration 
is  of  the  very  greatest  importance  for  the  future  of 
Judaism,  especially  as  there  is  no  sign  of  its  abating. 
It  means  bringing  into  play  all  the  latent  strength  and 
co-operation  of  millions  of  intelligent  Jews  in  the 
ferment  of  life  in  the  large  towns,  in  great  industries 
and  manufactures,  in  the  trade  of  the  world — Jews  who 
had  hitherto  eked  out  the  most  penurious  existence  in 
the  villages  and  small  towns  of  their  native  undeveloped 
countries.  It  means  an  advance  from  poverty  and 
misery  to  prosperity  and  security.  It  means  the  rais- 
ing of  politically  oppressed  and  degraded  men  to  the 
dignity  of  free  independent  citizens  of  a  free  country. 
It  means,  finally,  the  substitution  of  the  most  highly 
developed  and  advanced  surroundings  in  the  world 
for  those  of  a  civilisation  still  blankly  unenlightened. 

In  proportion  as  the  Jewish  immigrant  advances  in 
prosperity,  the  ties  which  bind  the  Jew  of  Eastern 
Europe  so  closely  to  his  brethren  tend  to  fall  away. 
It  is  true  that  the  Jewish  quarter  of  New  York  is  little 
else  than  a  Russian  or  Galician  Ghetto  on  American 
soil,  and  its  inmates  toil  under  the  sweating  system 
as  tailors,  cobblers  and  carpenters  for  their  daily 
bread  ;    but  how  long  will  this  be  so  ?     The  Jew  will 


94  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

not  remain  for  ever  in  the  sweated  workrooms.  At 
first,  in  order  to  get  a  footing  in  an  absolutely  foreign 
economic  system,  he  cannot  do  without  them  :  it  has 
been  rightly  said  that  these  workrooms  turn  out  not 
so  much  work  as  workers  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  Jew  is 
here  prepared  for  American  economic  life.  But  he  is 
on  the  watch  for  other  activities,  his  present  ones  are 
but  a  stepping-stone  to  better  things.  As  soon  as  he 
is  able  to  leave  the  East  End,  and  find  a  foothold 
outside,  thus  climbing  the  first  rung  of  the  economic 
ladder,  he  submits  himself  absolutely  to  the  influence 
of  American  culture,  which  in  a  few  decades,  or  at 
•  most  in  one  or  two  generations,  lures  him  away  from 
Judaism,  or  at  any  rate  so  weakens  its  hold  that  a 
formal  profession  is  all  that  remains  of  it.  A  Jew 
I  emigrates  to  the  United  States  to-day  a  strictly  ortho- 
dox Rabbi,  speaking  only  Yiddish  ;  after  the  lapse  of 
ten  years,  once  outside  the  East  End,  he  has  become 
tolerant,  has  learnt  to  murder  the  English  language, 
and  attends  a  slightly  modernised  synagogue  service. 
After  twenty  years  he  often  attends  reform  synagogues 
with  their  Sunday  Sabbaths,  speaks  English  by  pre- 
ference, and  gives  his  children  a  modern  American 
education.  Thus  the  children,  or  at  best  the  grand- 
children, grow  up  with  little  or  no  Jewish  communal 
feeling,  and  the  slightest  inducement  will  take  them 
over  to  Christianity.  It  is  now  only  thirty  years  since 
these  immigrations  began,  and  the  immigrants  are 
still  for  the  most  part  in  the  first  generation  ;  the  fate 
of  the  second  and  third  generations  will  show  what 
to-day  can  only  be  surmised. 

Rapid  as  is  the  process  of  assimilation  once  outside 
the  Ghetto  walls,  transforming  a  Jew  of  our  often- 
quoted  "  first  class  "  into  one  of   the  third  or  fourth 


DISPERSION  95 

within  the  space  of  two  or  three  decades,  the  process 
within  the  East  End  boundaries  is  much  slower.  The 
immigrant  here  rarely  raises  himself  above  the  second 
class,  and  it  is  only  his  children  and  grandchildren 
who  become  assimilated. 

E.  Inland  migrations. 

Of  less  importance  than  these  migrations  from 
country  to  country  are  the  inland  migrations,  i.e. 
changes  of  residence  within  the  country  itself ;  though 
similarly  here  the  Jews  naturally  seek  a  district  where 
the  economic  pressure  is  less  heavy — with  possibilities 
of  greater  prosperity — thus  indirectly  tending  to 
assimilation.  In  Russia,  the  broad  lands  of  which  seem 
to  invite  such  migrations,  they  are  prevented  by  law, 
which  denies  all  Jews  (with  the  exception  of  merchants 
of  the  first  guild,  those  holding  university  degrees, 
and  master  mechanics)  the  right  of  moving  out  of 
Poland  or  the  fifteen  other  governmental  divisions 
where  alone  they  are  allowed  to  live.  Within  this 
so-called  Pale  of  Settlement  there  live  4,899,327  Jews, 
that  is  93.93  per  cent,  of  the  whole  of  Russian  Jewry, 
though  this  Pale  of  Settlement  is  only  one  twenty- 
third  part  of  the  whole  Russian  Territory. 

We  see  how  unequally  divided  the  Jewish  population 
of  Russia  is  from  the  following  figures : — 

Of  total  Population. 

In  Poland,     -  i4-°5  per  cent. 

In  the  15  Governmental  Depart- 
ments of  Pale  of  Settlement,       11.12 

In  the  3  Governmental  Depart- 
ments, Kurland,  Livland,  St. 
Petersburg,         -         -         -  2.49        ,, 

In  the  remaining  32  Governmental 

Departments  of  European  Russia,  0.19       „ 


96  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

Inland  migrations  of  the  Jews  from  the  overcrowded 
Pale  of  Settlement  to  other  parts  of  Russia  would  be 
to  their  greatest  possible  advantage,  but  the  Russian 
Government  insists  on  their  remaining  within  the 
prescribed  areas. 

The  opposite  policy  prevails  in  Italy,  where  the  Jews 
avail  themselves  freely  of  the  right  of  change  of 
domicile,  and  constitute  the  most  mobile  element  of 
the  population.  Only  61.5  per  cent,  of  the  Jews 
(according  to  the  census  of  1901)  were  born  in  their 
present  domicile.  They  migrate  principally  from 
Northern  Italy  to  Rome  and  the  Southern  States. 

In  Galicia  the  Jews  tend  to  move  from  West  to  East. 
Dr.  Buzek,  Docent  at  Lemberg  University,1  ascertained 
that  in  the  year  1869  there  were  147,356  Jews  in  East 
Galicia,  428,077  in  West  Galicia,  whereas  in  1900  there 
were  192,371  in  West  Galicia  and  618,751  in  East 
Galicia.  In  1900  the  Jews  constituted  12.9  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  population  of  East  Galicia  ;  6.9  per  cent, 
of  the  whole,  and  29.8  per  cent,  of  the  town  population 
of  West  Galicia. 

In  Germany  the  Jews  migrate  from  the  country- 
side to  the  towns  (cp.  the  similar  tendency  of  the 
general  German  population),  but,  unlike  the  Galician 
movement,  its  trend  is  not  from  West  to  East,  but 
from  East  to  West.  Between  the  years  1871  and 
1905  the  number  of  Jews  in  the  East  Provinces — East 
Prussia,  West  Prussia,  Pomerania,  and  Posen — de- 
creased from  116,075  ( =  22.67  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
Jewish  population  in  Germany)  to  69,785  (  =  11.48  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  Jewish  population  in  Germany),  a 
decrease  of  46,290  souls ;  of  these,  31,549  in  the  Province 

1  Quoted  by  Korkis,  "  The  Movement  of  the  Jewish  Population 
in  Galicia,"  Jewish  Statistics,  vol.  i.  p.  311. 


DISPERSION 


97 


of  Posen  alone,  the  numbers  there  being  reduced 
from  61,982  to  30,433.  Against  this,  the  number  of 
Jews  in  the  West  Provinces  (Saxony,  Hanover,  West- 
phalia, Hessen,  Nassau,  Rhineland)  has  increased  from 
110,765  (  =  21.63  per  cent,  of  the  total  Jewish  popula- 
tion in  Germany)  in  1871  to  149,812  (  =  24.65  per  cent, 
of  the  total  Jewish  population  of  Germany)  in  1905. 

The  Jewish  population  has  increased  more  especially 
in  Berlin  and  the  Province  of  Brandenberg  (to  which 
the  suburbs  and  environs  of  Berlin  belong),  namely 
from  47,489  to  139,320,  i.e.  91,831  souls.  Berlin 
attracts  an  ever-increasing  number  of  Prussian  Jews. 
The  following  table  shows  that  whereas  in  1816  only 
2.72  per  cent,  of  all  Prussian  Jews  resided  in  Berlin, 
the  percentage  has  steadily  increased  till  in  1905  it 
reached  24.15  per  cent.  If  we  include  with  Berlin  its 
29  suburbs,  we  find  that  of  a  total  population  of 
2,993,441  there  were  in  1905  about  130,000  Jews  : 
i.e.  31.75  per  cent,  of  all  Prussian  Jews  live  in  Berlin. 


Year. 

In  Berlin  were 

Percentage  of  Jews  in 

Berlin  to  Total  Number 

of  Prussian  Jews. 

Non-Jews. 

Jews. 

Non-Jews. 

Jews. 

I8l6,        - 

1843,        - 

l86l,        - 

1867,        - 

1871,        -            -            - 

1880,        - 

1885,        - 

1890,        - 

1895,        " 
I900, 
I905,        - 

194,372 
34J.457 
528,618 

585.054 
786,382 
1,068,414 
1,250,904 
i,499,5o8 
1,591,152 
1,796,642 
1,941,255 

3,373 
8,35i 
i8,953 
24,189 
36,105 
53,9i6 

64.383 
79,286 
86,152 
92,206 
98,893 

1.89% 
2.24  % 
2.90% 
2-47  % 
3-23  % 
3-97  % 
4-48  % 
5-07  % 
5.06% 

5-27  % 
5-26  % 

2.72  % 
4.O4  % 

7-44  % 
7-72  % 
11.09% 
14-82  % 
17-56% 
21.31  % 
22.69  % 
23.50  % 
24-15% 

CHAPTER  VI. 

CONGESTION    IN   THE   LARGE   TOWNS. 

A.  Causes  of  the  rapid  assimilation  of  Jews  in  large 
towns. 
Large  towns  are  one  of  the  great  factors  of  assimila- 
tion—veritable hot-beds  of  the  process,  which  goes 
on  more  actively  and  rapidly  there  than  in  other  parts 
of  the  country.  There  are  many  reasons  for  this. 
First  of  all,  the  capitalised  economic  life  of  the  day 
is  there  focussed  ;  there  are  to  be  found  the  banks, 
the  great  markets,  the  centres  of  exchange.  There 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  Christians  are  occupied  in 
the  same  callings  as  Jews,  whence  the  obliteration  of 
that  diversity  of  occupation  which  is  still  felt  in  the 
country  between  Jew  and  Christian.  Further,  the 
large  towns  are  the  homes  of  irreligion,  or  at  least  of 
religious  indifference ;  Christianity,  which  exerts  a 
powerful  influence  over  the  individual  in  villages  and 
small  towns,  is  here  of  little  account,  and  the  religious 
differences  between  Jew  and  Christian  are  hardly 
noticeable.  On  the  other  hand,  large  towns  with 
their  public  schools,  universities,  and  similar  institu- 
tions, offer  exceptional  opportunities  for  acquiring 
higher  education  and  culture,  which,  as  we  shall  see, 
render  the  Jew  especially  receptive  to  assimilative 
influence  and  apt  to  renounce  his  Judaism. 


CONGESTION   IN  THE  LARGE  TOWNS    99 

In  a  small  town  the  Jewish  convert  to  Christianity 
must  be  prepared  to  create  something  of  a  scandal,  and 
probably  to  be  cut  by  the  majority  of  those  with 
whom  he  has  hitherto  associated  ;  whereas,  in  a  large 
town,  where  people  meet  more  easily,  he  can  make 
new  social  connections  without  much  difficulty,  not 
only  among  other  converted  Jews,  but  with  professing 
Jews  and  Christians.  The  Christians  are  ignorant  for 
the  most  part  of  how  recent  is  the  conversion,  and 
the  Jews  themselves  are  often  so  far  assimilated,  that 
they  readily  forgive  the  step,  especially  if  it  goes  not 
further  than  allowing  the  children  to  be  baptised.  In 
addition  to  this,  it  should  be  noted  that  the  forma- 
lities to  be  gone  through  in  connection  with  the  actual 
ceremony  of  conversion  are  much  less  rigorous  in  large 
towns.  Further,  a  large  town,  where  religious  sects 
abound — agnostics,  theists  and  dissenters  of  all  sorts 
— puts  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  a  dissenting  Jew,  who 
would  be  looked  upon  as  a  wicked  unbeliever  in  a 
village  or  small  town.  The  broad-mindedness  of  the 
town  dweller  is  the  greatest  contrast  to  the  limited 
horizon  of  the  villager. 

B.  Statistics  of  the  centralisation  of  Jews  in  large 
towns. 
Seeing  that  large  towns  offer  such  special  oppor- 
tunities for  the  assimilation  of  the  Jewish  to  the 
Gentile  population,  we  must  give  particular  attention 
to  the  departure  of  the  Jews  from  villages  and  small 
towns,  and  to  their  centralisation  in  the  large  cities.  It 
is  true  that  Jews  in  the  Diaspora  have  always  been 
mainly  townspeople ;  in  proportion  to  the  Christians 
they  have  always  been  scantily  represented  in  the  open 
country,  and  this  even  in  countries  where  they  are  at 


100 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


perfect  liberty  to  settle  where  they  will.     Thus  there 
were  : 


Year. 

Jews. 

Of  Total 
Town  Population. 

In 

In  the 

Towns. 

In  the 
Country. 

Jews. 

Christians. 

Denmark, 
Galicia,    - 
Prussia,    - 
Servia,     - 
Bulgaria,  - 
Norway,  - 

1901 
1900 

I905 
I900 
1900 
1900 

3,310  i             166 

274,478     536,893 

351,550        57-951 

5,726                3 

32,482         1,181 

565              77 

94.98% 
34.04  % 
85.85% 
99-95  % 
96.49% 
87.90% 

39.06% 
7-30% 
44.89% 
13.88% 
19.39% 
28.30% 

In  Russia  there  are  indeed  stringent  legal  restrictions 
limiting  the  number  of  Jews  in  villages.  Thus  we 
find  that  there  were  in  1897  50.5  per  cent,  of  the 
total  number  of  Jews  as  compared  with  n. 8  per  cent, 
of  the  total  number  of  non-Jews  who  were  town- 
dwellers.  Perhaps  the  crowding  of  the  Jews  in  the 
towns  can  be  yet  more  clearly  appreciated  when  we 
remember  that  the  Jews  constitute  only  4.15  per  cent. 
of  the  total  population  of  Russia,  but  15.6  per  cent, 
of  the  town  population. 

Characteristic  of  the  present  migratory  movement 
is  the  emigration  of  the  Jews  from  towns  to  larger 
towns.  The  reason  for  this  is  the  change  in  economic 
conditions.  Just  as  the  Jews  used  to  seek  the  towns 
as  being  the  centres  of  trade,  they  now  troop  to  the 
large  towns,  because  the  development  of  international 
trade  and  commerce  and  the  rapid  advance  of  industry 
and  manufacture  are  becoming  more  and  more  centred 
in  the  large  towns,  while  trade  between  the  small  towns 
is  fast  losing  its  old  importance.  From  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Hessen  we  have  convincing  statistics  in  proof 


CONGESTION   IN  THE  LARGE  TOWNS    101 


of   this  movement.     Of    the  whole  number  of    Jews 
in  Hessen  there  lived  : 


In  Actual  Figures. 

Percentage. 

1828. 

1871. 

1905. 

1828. 

1871. 

1905. 

In    Places    with    less 

than  2000  Inhabs., 

I3.6I7 

13.063 

7.871 

64.13 

51.49 

31.86 

In  Places  with  2000- 

10,000  Inhabitants, 

5,443 

5,846 

7.789 

25.63 

23.03 

31.54 

In  Places    with    over 

10,000  Inhabitants, 

2,176 

6,464 

9.039 

IO.24 

25.48 

36.60 

We  may  say  that  the  more  highly  developed  are  the 
trade  and  commerce  of  a  country,  the  greater  the  pro- 
portion of  Jews  in  its  large  towns.  Of  the  Jewish 
immigrants  to  England,  60  per  cent,  choose  London, 
and  30  per  cent.  Manchester,  Leeds,  Glasgow  and 
Liverpool  as  their  domicile.  In  the  United  States, 
about  60  per  cent,  of  the  Jewish  immigrants  settle  in 
New  York.  In  Germany,  according  to  the  census  of 
1900,  42.72  per  cent,  of  all  the  Jews,  against  only 
15.90  per  cent,  of  all  the  Christians,  lived  in  large 
towns  (i.e.  towns  of  over  100,000  inhabitants).  In 
Prussia  (1905)  there  lived  : 


In  Actual 

Figures. 

Percentage. 

Inhabitants 

Christians. 

Jews. 

Chris- 
tians. 

Jews. 

In  cities  with  more  than  200,000 

4,748,565 

188,926 

12.87 

46.13 

,, 

,            100,000-200,000 

2,484,583 

36,588 

6-75 

8-93 

,, 

,              50,000-100,000 

1,683,923 

18,269 

4-56 

4.46 

,, 

30,000-  50,000 

1,141,976 

15,007 

3.IO 

3-66 

,, 

20,000-   30,000 

1,432,338 

16,960 

3.88 

4.14 

,, 

,               10,000-  20,000 

1,615,469 

17,459 

4.38 

4.26 

,, 

,                 5,000-   10,000 

1,516,623 

23,618 

4.II 

5-76 

» 

,            less  than  5,000 
Total  No.  in  towns, 

1,932,978 

34,723 

5-24 

8-47 

16,556,455 

351,550 

44.89 

85.85 

,,         ,,       villages, 

20,327,368 

57,951 

55.11 

I4-I5 

102  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

The  large  towns  of  Prussia  thus  contained  55.06  per 
cent,  of  all  Prussian  Jews,  but  only  19.62  per  cent,  of 
the  total  of  its  Christians.  In  Bavaria  in  1900,  in 
towns  of  over  20,000  inhabitants,  Jews  were  46.2  per 
cent,  of  their  total  number,  Christians  21.9.  These 
great  numerical  differences  are  easily  explained  when 
we  bear  in  mind  the  trade  census  of  1895,  when  it  was 
ascertained  that  33.15  per  cent,  of  those  engaged  in 
trade  lived  in  large  towns.  The  industrial  pursuits 
determine  the  place  of  residence.  Nor  must  we  ignore 
that  there  are  other  motives  for  migration — the  access 
to  higher  education  for  the  children,  the  possibility 
of  greater  comfort  and  enjoyment,  and  the  greater 
freedom  of  action  offered  by  a  large  town.  Anti- 
Semitism  in  the  Eastern  Provinces  is  also  responsible 
for  the  departure  of  the  Jews  thence  to  Berlin. 

In  Roumania  the  respective  percentage  of  the  total 
number  of  Jews  and  Christians  is  72.27  per  cent,  and 
13.34  Per  cent,  in  the  32  capitals  of  the  departments. 
In  Italy  in  1901,  of  a  total  of  35,617  Jews,  30,792,  or 
86.4  per  cent.,  lived  in  the  69  chief  towns  :  of  these 
20,698,  or  58.11  per  cent.,  in  the  six  towns,  Rome, 
Milan,  Turin,  Florence,  Leghorn,  and  Venice. 

In  Bulgaria,  where  in  1900  no  fewer  than  96.49  per 
cent,  of  all  the  Jews  lived  in  towns,  45.82  per  cent, 
alone  lived  in  the  three  towns,  Sophia,  Rustschuk,  and 
Philippopel.  In  the  Austro-Hungarian  kingdom,  in 
towns  of  more  than  50,000  inhabitants,  there  lived  in 
1900  : 

Of  all  Jews.         Of  all  Christians. 

Austria,         -        -        23.33  10.60 

Hungary,      -        -        26.11  6.39 

The  relatively  thickest  Jewish  population  is  found  in 
the  towns  of  the  Russian  Pale  of  Settlement  and  in 


CONGESTION  IN  THE  LARGE  TOWNS    103 

Galicia  and  Bukovina.  In  Russia  the  town  of  Ber- 
ditschew  with  41,617  Jews  has  the  highest  percentage 
of  Jews,  i.e.  j8  per  cent,  of  the  whole  population  ;  in 
15  other  towns  with  over  10,000  Jews,  and  in  31  towns 
with  over  5,000,  the  Jews  constitute  more  than  50  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  population.  In  Galicia  the  town  of 
Brody  with  11,854  Jews  nas  tne  highest  percentage 
of  Jews,  i.e.  72.1  per  cent,  of  the  whole  population  ; 
besides  Brody,  there  are  nine  other  large  towns  in  which 
they  constitute  the  majority  of  the  population.1  In 
Palestine,  Jerusalem,  Safed  and  Tiberias  are  largely 
Jewish  towns.     In  Salonica  also  they  are  in  a  majority. 

C.  Preference  for  the  Capitals. 

Capitals  exert  the  greatest  attraction  for  Jews, 
because  they  are  pre-eminently  the  centres  of  trade 
and  industry,  and  also  of  those  other  callings  with 
which  Jews  love  to  identify  themselves  :  journalism, 
art,  literature,  etc. 

In  actual  figures,  the  following  towns  have  the 
greatest  number  of  Jews  : 

New  York,        -        -        -  1,000,000 

Warsaw,   -                                  -  250,000 

Budapest, 169,000 

Odessa,      -----  150,000 

London,    -----  150,000 

Vienna,     -----  147,000 

Chicago,   Philadelphia,   Berlin  and  Paris  have  about 
100,000  each.     In   these   ten  towns  there  live  about 

1  In  Roumania  the  following  towns  have  a  Jewish  majority  : 
Herta  with  66.2  per  cent.,  Milhaileni  with  65.6  per  cent.,  Harlau  with 
59.6  per  cent.,  Falticeni  with  57  per  cent.,  Dorohoi  with  53.6  per 
cent.,  Botosani  with  51.8  per  cent,  and  Jassy  with  50.8  per  cent. 


104 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


/one-fifth,  and  in  the  first  six  about  one-sixth  of  the 
entire  Jewish  population  of  the  world. 

NUMBER  OF  JEWS    IN  THE   CAPITALS  OF   VARIOUS 
COUNTRIES. 


Living 

IN    CAPI- 

Jews  to 

tal  of  Country 

every  100 

in  Qv 

iSTION. 

In  the 

In 

Jews. 

XT                 T 

Inhabi- 

Capital of 

Year 

In  on- Jews. 

tants  of 

the 

Per  1,000 

Per  1,000 
Non- 
Jews. 

Capital. 

Jews. 

Austria, 

I900 

146,926 

1,528,031 

8.77 

123 

61 

Roumania,    - 

1899 

43.274 

282,071 

I3-30 

I6l 

50 

Italy,  - 

I90I 

7,121 

655.200 

I  08 

200 

20 

Poland, 

I90I 

254.712 

457.276 

35.77 

193 

57 

Hungary, 

I90O 

166,198 

537.250 

23.03 

195 

29 

Prussia, 

I905 

98,893 

I.94I.255 

4.85 

24I 

53 

U.S.A., 

I908 

1,000,000 

3,300,000 

23.25 

563 

39 

Netherlands, 

1899 

59,065 

45L788 

II.56 

568 

90 

England  and 

Wales, 

I908 

140,000 

6,581,327 

2. II 

560 

156 

Denmark, 

I90I 

2,826 

397.749 

O.7O 

813 

163 

New       South 

Wales  (Syd- 

ney), 

I9OI 

5.137 

482,763 

I.05 

797 

357 

Bulgaria, 

I900 

8,720 

59,069 

12.86 

259 

16 

Victoria  (Mel- 

bourne),   - 

I90I 

5.I03 

488,853 

1.04 

863 

411 

D.  London  and  New  York. 

It  is  noticeable  that  in  the  towns  which  receive  the 
greatest  influx  of  immigrants,  namely  New  York  and 
London,  the  Jews  congregate  in  one  particular  quarter. 
Thus  in  London  in  1901,  85  per  cent,  of  the  Russian 
and  Polish  immigrants  were  living  in  the  borough  of 
Stepney,  and  in  New  York  the  great  majority  of  immi- 
grants are  concentrated  in  the  East  End.  This 
concentration  may  be  put  down  partly  to  religious 
motives  (proximity  to  synagogues  and  Kosher  butchers), 
though  the  real  reason  is  undoubtedly  that  the  imrni- 


CONGESTION   IN  THE  LARGE  TOWNS     105 

grant  Jew — ignorant  of  the  English  language  and  of 
English  and  American  life — instinctively  seeks  inter- 
course among  his  own  people,  and  wishes  to  be  as  near 
them  as  possible.  But,  in  proportion  as  he  learns 
English  and  begins  to  get  familiar  with  English  and 
American  life,  he  finds  the  East  End  with  its  sweated 
workrooms  too  narrow  for  him,  and  seeks  employment 
outside.  The  East  End  serves  as  a  sort  of  distiller,  in 
which  all  those  immigrants  who  are  too  old  or  unable 
to  fit  themselves  into  the  new  life,  sink  to  the  bottom. 
The  others,  and  especially  the  second  generation,  flow 
out  of  the  reservoir.  The  overcrowding  of  the  East 
End  is  often  cited  as  a  proof  that  Jews  like  to  con- 
gregate  together  ;  but  this  is  not  the  case.  The  Jews 
crowd  into  the  East  End  because  in  the  first  years 
their  only  chance  of  a  livelihood  is  there  ;  but  their 
desire  is  not  to  remain  everlastingly  in  the  sweated 
industries.  They  aspire  to  be  independent  merchants 
and  business  men,  and  this  aspiration  will  carry  them 
out  of  the  East  End,  even  though  that  district  should 
remain  for  many  decades  the  refuge  of  the  new 
immigrant. 


SECTION  III. 
THE   VARIOUS   PHASES   OF   ASSIMILATION. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ADOPTION  OF  THE  LANGUAGE  OF  THE 
COUNTRY. 

A.  Changes  of  language  in  the  history  of  the  fews. 

Language,  handed  down  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion, is  one  of  the  most  precious  of  spiritual  possessions. 
It  directs  the  thought  of  the  child's  mind  into  a  fixed 
groove,  the  result  of  the  mental  effort  of  former 
generations,  the  written  and  printed  masterpieces  of 
which  become,  later  on,  the  principal  intellectual  food 
of  the  child.  All  culture  is  bound  up  with  language, 
and  only  accessible  through  it. 

The  Jews  in  the  course  of  their  history  have  had 
many  changes  of  language.  Hebrew  ceased  to  be  the 
general  national  language  after  the  fifth  century  B.C., 
when  it  gave  place  to  Aramaic  (in  its  two  forms  Chaldaic 
in  Palestine,  Syriac  in  Babylon),  and  later  to  Greek. 
Hebrew  only  ceased  to  be  a  colloquial  language  at  the 
end  of  the  second  century  a.d.,  having  been  renewed 
in  Palestine  at  the  time  of  the  Maccabees.  The 
cultured  Jew  of  Alexandria  in  the  first  and  second 
centuries  a.d.  was  an  exception  if  he  spoke  Hebrew 
fluently,  besides  Greek.  As  a  written  language  it 
never  died  out,  though  the  prevailing  language  of  the 
Babylonian  Talmud  and  of  Jewish  literature  in  Babylon 
until  the  tenth  century  was  not  Hebrew  but 
Aramaic. 


no  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

A  great  change  came  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  cen- 
turies, when  Islam  triumphantly  spread  the  culture  of 
the  Arabs  from  Arabia  across  North  Africa  to  Spain. 
The  Jews,  taking  up  this  movement  with  enthusiasm, 
gave  up  Aramaic  in  favour  of  Arabic.  The  poets  and 
sages  of  the  Jews  at  that  time  wrote  most  of  their  works 
in  Arabic,  though  Hebrew — cultivated  as  a  literary 
language  in  the  schools  of  Sura  and  Pumbedita — was 
not  forgotten,  and  was  much  used  in  that  capacity. 
For  about  five  centuries  Arabic  remained  the  principal 
colloquial  language  of  the  Jews  till  it  gave  way  to  the 
Latin  languages — to  Spanish  in  Spain  under  the 
dominion  of  Christian  Castile,  to  French  in  France. 
The  oldest  known  French  elegy  (written  at  the  end  of 
the  thirteenth  century)  was  written  by  a  Jew  on  the 
burning  of  Jewish  martyrs  ;  and  in  Spain  the  Spanish 
language  took  such  firm  root  among  the  Jews  that 
after  their  exile  in  1492  they  took  it  with  them  to  their 
new  homes,  and  speak  it  in  European  Turkey,  Asia 
Minor,  Syria  and  Palestine  to  this  day.  It  is  no  longer 
pure  Spanish,  but  is  mixed  with  many  Turkish  and 
Hebrew  words,  and  is  called  "  Spaniolisch."  1 

As  Spaniolisch  is  to  Spanish,  so  is  the  "  Yiddish  " 
or  "  Jargon  "  2  of  Eastern  Europe  to  German.     The 

1  Spaniolisch  is  spoken  not  only  within  the  present  Turkish 
dominions  but  also  in  those  countries  which  were  formally  under 
Turkish  rule.  In  Bulgaria  in  1900  Spaniolisch  was  the  every-day 
language  of  96.76  per  cent,  of  the  Jews  ;  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina 
in  1895  of  69.75  per  cent,  of  the  Jews;  in  Servia  in  1900  of  26.95 
per  cent,  of  the  Jews. 

2  Latterly  many  protests  have  been  raised  by  Jews  against  the 
designation  "  Jargon  " — jargon  signifying  a  mutilation,  and  con- 
veying a  false  impression  of  an  organically  developed  language.  But 
"  Jargon  "  has,  we  think,  become  the  generally  accepted  name  for 
"  Yiddish,"  and  as  such  carries  with  it  no  derogatory  extraneous 
significance. 


ADOPTION  OF  LANGUAGE  OF  COUNTRY  in 

Jews  in  Germany,  as  we  learn  from  old  authorities 
and  contemporary  writings,  spoke  the  same  German  as 
the  Christians  up  to  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  cen- 
turies. Not  till  they  were  shut  up  in  Ghettos — thus 
falling  out  of  touch  with  Christian  culture  and  being 
thrust  back  on  themselves— did  their  language  begin 
to  differ  from  that  of  the  Christians.  It  kept  to  the 
old  forms  (Mittelhochdeutsch)  and  had  introduced  into 
it  many  Hebrew  words  (especially  for  all  incidents  of 
religious  or  specially  Jewish  life),  for  Hebrew  had  never 
ceased  being  the  literary  language  of  the  Jews.  During 
the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  the  German  Jews 
emigrated  in  vast  numbers  to  the  Kingdon  of  Poland, 
taking  their  colloquial  "  Yiddish  "  with  them,  and  to 
this  they  have  adhered  to  the  present  day  :  while  in 
Germany  itself — since  the  beginning  of  the  emancipa- 
tion, i.e.  since  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  it 
was  given  up  in  favour  of  pure  German,  and  from  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  was  no  longer 
used  at  all. 

B.  Causes  of  the  changes  of  language. 

How  was  it  that  within  a  hundred  years  "  Jargon  " 
disappeared  altogether  from  Germany  ?  It  is  explicable 
only  in  view  of  the  equally  rapid  change  in  the  economic 
conditions  of  the  Jews.  Till  the  year  1750  nothing  but 
a  number  of  pedlars  and  pawnbrokers,  they  began,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  to  be  bankers 
and  promoters  of  every  new  industry — the  pioneers  of 
the  dawning  capitalistic  era  !  The  numerous  dealings 
they  had  with  Christians  made  the  acquiring  of  the 
German  language— a  luxury  they  had  been  able 
to  dispense  with  in  their  previous  petty  callings— an 
absolute    necessity.     And    along    with    the    economic 


ii2  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

motive  came  the  introduction  of  compulsory  schooling 
and  the  establishment  of  state  education — both  of 
great  importance  for  the  promotion  of  German. 

As  was  the  case  with  German  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, so  with  former  changes  of  language  among  the 
Jews — we  find  economic  causes  the  prima  mobilia. 
The  extension  of  their  economic  activities  brought 
about  the  adoption  of  Aramaic  when  this  was  the  pre- 
vailing language  in  Western  Asia  :  similarly  when, 
later,  Greek  became  the  universal  language,  and  the 
seafaring  Jewish  merchants  of  Syria  and  Egypt  were 
unfamiliar  with  it,  they  adopted  Greek  as  their  language. 
So  in  turn  it  became  necessary  to  learn  Arabic,  Spanish, 
French  and  German  when  the  Jews  became  the  carriers 
of  trade,  bearing  the  goods  of  the  Orient  to  Spain, 
France  and  Germany.  In  the  present  day  we  see  how 
the  Jewish  emigrants  from  Eastern  Europe  to  England 
and  America  are  forced  to  give  up  Yiddish  in  favour  of 
English  as  soon  as  they  once  get  outside  the  Jewish 
quarters  in  New  York  and  London  and  set  up  business 
for  themselves  ;  the  same  thing  happens  with  the 
Russian  Jew  outside  the  Pale  of  Settlement,  while 
even  within  the  Pale,  all  those  Jews  who  have  deal- 
ings with  Christians  in  a  large  way  of  trade  and 
industry  are  bound  to  learn  the  language  of  the 
country. 

C.  The  spread  of  Yiddish. 

Though  Yiddish  has  suffered  much  from  the  emigra- 
tion from  Eastern  Europe  and  the  changes  in  European 
economic  conditions,  it  still  remains  the  language  of 
the  great  majority  of  Jews.  In  Russia,  Russian  Poland, 
Galicia  and  Roumania  it  is  the  mother  tongue  of  about 
six  millions  ;  in  England  and  the  Colonies  and  America 


ADOPTION  OF  LANGUAGE  OF  COUNTRY     113 

of  a  further  million,  and  it  is  both  written  and  printed 
(in  Hebrew  characters).  Though  a  great  number  of 
these  millions  have  at  any  rate  some  knowledge  of  the 
language  of  the  country  and  of  Hebrew,  Yiddish 
remains  the  dominating  language — the  mother  tongue. 
In  all  the  Jewish  quarters  of  Russian  and  Galician  towns 
Yiddish  is  used  on  the  hoardings  and  shops — Yiddish 
is  the  language  of  secular  literature  and  of  the  news- 
papers. 

In  Russia  we  learn  from  the  census  of  1897  that  of 
a  total  of  5,215,805  Jews,  5,054,300  (  =  96.90  per  cent.) 
spoke  Yiddish  as  their  mother  tongue,  and  only  161,505 
had  any  other  mother  tongue  (Russian,  Polish  or 
German).  Within  the  Pale  of  Settlement  97.96  per 
cent,  speak  Yiddish  as  their  mother  tongue.  Beyond 
the  Pale  the  percentage  falls  to  80.4  per  cent.,  so  that 
even  here  Yiddish  is  the  prevailing  language  among 
the  Israelites,  though  they  are  bound  to  have  some 
knowledge  of  Russian  also.  In  Galicia,  Yiddish  is  not 
accounted  a  language  in  the  official  statistics,  and, 
though  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  the  majority 
of  Galician  Jews  speak  Yiddish  as  their  mother  tongue 
primarily,  and  Polish  or  Ruthenian  only  secondarily, 
the  statistics  give  a  false  impression  by  registering  the 
language  of  the  Jews  as  German,  Polish,  Ruthenian,  etc. 
Only  thus  are  the  following  results  explicable,  obtained 
from  the  Austrian  census  of  1900  : 

Languages  spoken  by  Jews  in  Galicia. 

German,         -        -  -  -  17. 1  per  cent. 

Polish,  -  76.6 

Ruthenian,    -        -  -  -  5.0       ,, 

Other  Languages,  -  -  -  1.3       „ 


ii4  THE  JEWS  0F  TO-DAY 

Languages  spoken  by  Jews  in  the  whole 
of  Austria. 


German,         - 

34.33  per  cent 

Bohemian,  Slovak,- 

472      „ 

Polish, 

50.81      „ 

Ruthenian,     - 

3-35      » 

Italian, 

0.24 

Roumanian,  - 

0.02 

Magyar,          - 

O.OI 

Other  Native  Languages, 

0.09 

Foreign  Languages, 

6-53     » 

In  England  and  America,  Yiddish,  wherever  it  is 
used  as  the  mother  tongue,  becomes  influenced  by 
English  forms  and  idioms,  and  takes  on  numerous  new 
words  and  phrases.  The  peculiarity  of  Yiddish  is  that 
it  inflects  the  Hebrew  verb  in  German  fashion,  and  it 
does  the  same  with  English,  thus  coining  some  extra- 
ordinary words.  Thus  Halach  (Hebrew  for  "to  go  ") 
becomes  halchenen  ;  "  to  let  "  becomes  verleten,  and 
so  forth.  Further,  the  English  words  are  spelt  not 
according  to  their  English  spelling,  but  by  the  sound, 
so  that  very  curious-looking  words  ensue. 

D.  Extent  of  the  adoption  of  European  languages. 

Jews  who  have  resided  some  generations  in  England 
!  and  America  speak  perfect  English  as  their  natural 
language,  just  as  the  Jews  in  Germany,  France  and 
Italy  speak  faultless  German,  French  and  Italian,  and 
can  barely  understand  Yiddish,  let  alone  speak  it. 
Nevertheless,  as  in  practically  ever}'  country  the  Jews 
are  constantly  being  recruited  from  their  European 
brethren,  Jews  in  all  parts  of  the  world  show  a  pre- 


ADOPTION  OF  LANGUAGE  OF  COUNTRY     115 

ference  for  German-  -the  parent  language  of  Yiddish— 
and  it  may  be  generally  accepted  that  every  Jew, 
Australian,  African  or  Asiatic,  understands  some 
German  from  the  broken  fragments  which  have  come 
down  to  him.  Therefore  it  was  that  the  Zionist  Con- 
gress— made  up  of  delegates  from  all  parts  of  the  world 
—chose  German  for  the  official  language  of  the  Congress. 
Statistically  this  prevalence  was  proved  in  Hungary 
in  1900,  when  25.45  per  cent.  Jews  were  found  to  be 
using  it  as  their  mother  tongue,  as  against  10  per  cent. 
of  the  Christians.  In  Bohemia  and  Moravia  they  show 
their  preference  for  German  by  letting  their  children 
attend  almost  exclusively  German  schools  and  uni- 
versities (as  opposed  to  Cszeckish),  so  that,  for  example, 
during  the  summer  term  of  1904  the  percentage  of  Jews 
at  the  German  University  of  Prague  was  25.7  per  cent., 
while  that  at  the  Bohemian  University  of  Prague  was 
only  1.2  per  cent.  In  Bukovina  in  1900,  91,907  Jews 
out  of  a  total  of  96,150  ( =  95.6  per  cent.)  were  speaking 
German  or  Yiddish  as  their  mother  tongue,  and  thus 
constituted  the  major  portion  of  the  German-speaking 
population  of  Bukovina,  namely  57.6  per  cent.,  so  that 
without  the  Jews,  Bukovina  would  lose  its  German 
character. 

The  German  language — in  its  capacity  of  common 
medium  of  expression  for  all  Jews — has  lately 
encountered  a  rival  in  English.  This  is  the  result  of 
the  great  influx  of  Jews  into  English-speaking  countries. 
Fifty  years  ago  hardly  100,000  Jews  lived  in  English- 
speaking  countries  ;  now  almost  2,200,000,  or  19.2  per 
cent,  of  all  Jewry,  are  established  there.  We  must 
remember,  however,  that  of  these  2,200,000  Jews 
only  about  one-half  have  as  yet  adopted  English  as 
their  every-day^  language,  while   the  other  half  still 


n6 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


speaks  Yiddish.  The  following  table  is  intended  to 
give  a  genera]  idea  of  the  languages  spoken  by  the 
Jews. 


Language  of  Country. 

Number  of  Jews 
in  Country. 

Number  of  Jews  who  speak 
this  language  as  Mother- 
tongue. 

(Slavonic,  i.e.  Russian  Polish, 

Cszechick,  Ruthenian, 

Bul- 

garian,    Servian), 

- 

6,225,000 

400,000 

English, 

- 

2,200,000 

1,100,000 

German, 

- 

900,000 

1,250,000 

Hungarian,  - 

- 

850,000 

600,000 

Turkish    and    Arabic, 

- 

650,000 

250,000 

French,         ... 

- 

175,000 

150,000 

Dutch, 

- 

110,000 

110,000 

Italian, 

- 

40,000 

40,000 

Other  Languages, 

400,000 

Jargon 
Spaniol. 

300,000 

7,000,000 

350,000 

11,550,000 

11,550,000 

Hence  we  see  that  of  the  11,550,000  Jews  in  the  world 
7,350,ooo  ( =  63.6  per  cent.)  speak  their  own  dialects 
(Yiddish  and  Spaniolisch) ,  the  remaining  4,200,000 
( =  36.4  per  cent.)  speaking  pure  European  languages. 
We  see  also  that  German  is  the  only  language  which 
is  spoken  by  Jews  outside  its  own  province  ;  in  Italy 
and  Holland  the  language  of  the  country  is  equally 
that  of  the  Jews,  while  all  the  other  European  lan- 
guages are  used  to  a  much  smaller  extent  than  the 
number  of  Jews  resident  in  the  countries  would  lead 
one  to  expect.  Especially  striking  is  the  decrepancy 
in  the  Slav  countries,  where  only  400,000  of  the 
6,225,000  resident  Jews,  i.e.  7  per  cent.,  habitually 
speak  the  language  of  the  country. 


ADOPTION  OF  LANGUAGE  OF  COUNTRY     117 

E.  Change  of  language  and  its  relation  to  assimilation. 

The  overthrow  of  Yiddish — a  work  begun  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  continued  in  the  nineteenth — 
will  be  consummated  in  the  twentieth  century.     This 
prophecy  is  based  not  only  on  the  increasing  develop- 
ment of  capitalism,  but  on  the  progress  of  culture  in 
Russian  Europe  and  in  the  East.     One  of  the  most 
potent    reasons    for    the    resistance    of    the     Eastern 
European  Jew  to  acquiring  the  Slav  languages,  and  of 
the    Ottoman    Jew    to    acquiring     Turkish    was    un- 
doubtedly the  conviction  that  the  culture  and  litera- 
ture, to  which  he  would  thereby  gain   access  was  of 
a  lower  standard  than  his  own  Hebrew  literature  and 
culture.     On  the  other  hand,  his  anxiety  to  acquire 
the  German  and  English  language  is  directly  attribut- 
able to  the  high  standard  of   German  and  English 
culture.     The  transformation  of  Russia  and  Turkey 
into  constitutional  States  and  their  consequent  pro- 
vision for  national  education,  will  do  much  to  induce 
the  Jews  to  acquire  the  Russian  and  Turkish  languages. 
But  with  the  overthrow  of  Yiddish  the  last  barrier 
which  separated  the  mass  of  East  European  Jews  from 
modern  culture  is  broken  down.     The  adoption  of  the 
language  of  the  country,  which  goes,  of  course,  hand 
in  hand  with  the  adoption  of  all  the  manners  and 
customs  of  that  country,  is  the  first  stage  to  assimila- 
tion, and  a  very  important  one.     It  cuts  away  at  a 
single  stroke  the  chain  by  which  Jewish  tradition  was 
handed  down    for  centuries   in   unbroken    continuity 
from  father  to  child.     Children  and  parents  no  longer 
understand  one  another.     Yiddish — the  sole  language 
of  the  parents — is  despised  by  the  children  who  attend 

the  "national  public  schools  not  only  in  America  and 

.... 


n8  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

England,  but  already  to  some  extent  in  Eastern 
Europe,  and  this  contempt  for  the  language  is  trans- 
ferred not  only  to  those  who  use  it  but  to  everything 
which  is  conveyed  to  them  by  means  of  it.  The  differ- 
ence of  language  means  at  the  same  time  difference  of 
outlook  on  all  Jewish  peculiarities  and  on  the  Jewish 
religion.  One  may  say  that  the  Jewish  religion  is  on 
firm  ground  only  where  Yiddish  is  the  mother  tongue. 
With  the  abandonment  of  Yiddish  the  way  is  open  for 
the  triumphant  march  of  capitalism,  for  the  adoption 
of  universal  culture,  for  the  depreciation  of  Jewish 
religion,  and  finally  for  intermarriage  and  conversion. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

ADOPTION   OF   COSMOPOLITAN   CULTURE. 

A.  The,  lew's  craving  for  education. 

The  process  of  assimilation,  beginning  with  the 
adoption  of  the  language  of  the  country,  passes  into 
its  second  stage  with  the  adoption  of  Christian  (i.e. 
universal)  education  and  culture.  One  reason  for  this 
is  that  Jews,  who  are  already  engaged  in  social  and 
commercial  intercourse  with  Christians,  find  the 
attainment  of  this  culture  a  great  asset  as  a  means  of 
advancement ;  but  another  reason  is  that  Jews  are 
always  eager  to  seize  any  opportunity  for  further 
developing  the  intellect,  and  turn  at  once  from  the 
language  to  its  literature.  Appreciation  of  the  value 
of  learning  and  study  is  a  tradition  among  Jews  to 
an  extent  unequalled  perhaps  by  any  other  people. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  already  in  the  time  of  Mohammed 
they  were  called  the  "  People  of  the  Book."  During 
the  whole  period  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  wealthy  Jew 
sought  a  husband  for  his  daughter  not  from  among 
the  rich,  but  from  the  most  learned,  the  greatest 
Talmud  scholar,  and  to  secure  such  a  one  he  was  willing 
to  make  every  possible  material  sacrifice.  His  ambi- 
tion was  to  have  a  learned  man  for  a  son-in-law,  as 
the  ambition  of  his  present-day  descendants  in  Berlin, 
Paris  or  London  is  to  have  for  son-in-law  some  Lord 


120 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


or  Count.  In  Poland  during  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries,  at  the  time  of  the  great  annual 
fairs  (Messe),  there  used  to  be  a  sort  of  market  for 
sons-in-law,  in  which  rich  Jews  sought  out  the  young 
Talmud  students  who  most  distinguished  themselves 
in  public  Talmudic  debates  and  discourses — "  The 
Jews  used  to  outbid  one  another  to  secure  the  most 
promising  young  Rabbis  for  their  daughters."  Even 
among  the  very  poorest  class  of  Jews  in  Eastern 
Europe,  opportunities  for  learning  and  study,  at  any 
rate  for  the  sons,  is  considered  so  essential  that  in 
Galicia  thousands  of  poor  artisans  and  pedlars  willingly 
pay  one-tenth  and  even  one-sixth  of  their  week's 
earnings  (up  to  one  gulden  out  of  about  six  guldens) 
to  their  son's  "  Melamed  "  (teacher  of  Hebrew  and  the 
rudiments  of  general  knowledge).  They  would  rather 
starve  than  that  their  children  should  go  without 
education.  This  esteem  for  learning  is  very  apparent 
in  those  countries  where  compulsory  education  is  not 

ILLITERATES. 


In 

Year. 

Russia, 

1897 

Budapest,  - 

I900 

Italy, 

I90I 

Bulgaria,     - 

I902 

Servia, 

I900 

N.S.  Wales, 

I90I 

Victoria, 

1901 

Of  all  Persons. 


Of  all  Ages,  - 
Of  all  Ages,  - 
Over  15  years, 
Married  in 

1902, 
Of  all  Ages,  - 
Over  15  years, 
From  5-15  ,, 


Per  100. 


Jews. 
M.  F. 


50.6 

15-5 

3-0 

4.1 


71. 1 
21. 1 

7-5 
21.3 


42.99 
3-15 
6.81 


Non-Jews. 
M.  F. 


70. 61 
20.82 

42.6 

34-i3 


91. 21 

25.9s 

57-° 
81.23 


83.02 
3-81 
10.00 


1  The  figures  have  reference  only  to  Roman  Catholics. 

2  The  figures  have  reference  only  to  Greek -Orthodox  Christians. 
J  The  figures  have  reference  only  to  Orthodox  Christians. 


ADOPTION  OF  COSMOPOLITAN  CULTURE    121 

rigidly  enforced,  and  where  the  attendance  of  the 
children  at  school  depends  very  much  on  the  inclination 
of  the  parents.  Here  statistics  show  that  the  number 
of  illiterates  among  Jews  is  considerably  less  than 
among  Christians.  In  view  of  these  figures,  we  must 
not  forget  that  the  Jews  are  mainly  townspeople  and 
merchants,  and  thus  need  good  schooling  more  urgently 
than  the  village  peasant;  and  a  school  education  is  much 
more  easily  obtainable  in  towns  than  in  country  districts. 

B.  The  decline  of  the  Cheder. 

Just  as  philosophy  in  the  Middle  Ages  was  only 
"  the  handmaid  of  Theology,"  so  Jewish  learning 
until  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  confined 
to  the  precincts  of  religion,  entailing  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  great  mass  of  Hebrew  literature. 
Secular  knowledge  was  not  only  despised,  but  pro- 
scribed. During  the  reign  of  Frederick  the  Great  a 
young  Jewish  student  (grandfather  of  the  Banker 
Bleichroder)  was  expelled  from  Berlin  for  having  been 
discovered  in  the  act  of  reading  a  German  book.  The 
same  spirit  still  prevails  in  the  Jewish  educational 
institutions  of  Eastern  Europe.  The  Hebrew  School, 
called  "Cheder"  (Hebrew  for  "Room")  teaches  its 
pupils  only  religious  and  Hebrew  subjects.  For  the 
teacher  (Melamed)  and  his  pupils,  the  Talmud  is  the 
beginning~lmd  the  end  of  knowledge.  "  Everything 
that  man  needs  to  know  is  to  be  found  in  the  Talmud, 
and  whatever  is  not  there  it  is  not  necessary  to  know," 
this  is  their  motto.  The  language  of  the  country 
is  not  taught  there,  for  fear  of  the  consequences  to 
orthodoxy.  It  is  pathetic  to  hear  of  the  almost 
insuperable  obstacles  put  in  the  way  of  lads  who  seek 
to  slake  their  thirst  for  knowledge  by  teaching  them- 


122  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

selves  the  language  and  literature  of  the  country  they 
-  live  in.  The  Cheder  guards  the  Jewish  child  from 
I  any  contact  with  modern  culture,  and  it  is  in  its  school- 
rooms that  orthodox  Judaism  is  born  anew  from 
generation  to  generation. 

The  pious  Jew  of  Eastern  Europe  thinks,  and  per- 
haps knows  from  experience,  that  any  secular  addition 
to  the  Cheder  instruction  is  a  danger  to  orthodoxy. 
The  schools  in  Galicia  instituted  by  Baron  Hirsch  in 
1891,  which  in  1907  employed  181  teachers,  and  were 
attended  by  about  10,000  pupils,1  had  a  hard  struggle 
against  the  mistrust  of  the  Galician  Jews.  Although 
their  curriculum  includes  a  large  amount  of  Hebrew, 
many  Jews  fear  that  their  children  may  lose  their 
nationality  there,  and  prefer  to  bear  the  burden  of  the 
cost  of  the  Cheder  rather  than  send  their  sons  to  the 
Hirsch  Schools,  where  not  only  are  there  no  fees,  but 
in  many  cases  food  and  clothing  are  provided  in  addition. 
The  Alliance  Israelite  Universelle  encountered  the  same 
distrust  when,  in  addition  to  building  Agricultural  and 
Handicraft  Schools,  it  built  Elementary  Schools  in 
Morocco,  Bulgaria,  European  Turkey,  Asia  Minor,  Syria, 
Mesopotamia,  Tripoli,  Egypt,  Tunis  and  Persia— schools 
attended  by  30,000  children  (boys  and  girls),  and 
entailing  an  annual  expenditure  of  two  million  francs. 

The  Jewish  father  is  less  particular  about  his 
daughter's  education  ;  in  his  eyes  there  is  no  necessity 
for  it,  as  it  is  only  the  sons  who  have  to  know  the 
Torah  :  it  is  not  even  right  for  girls  to  know  about  it. 
"  This  principle  "—as  Graetz  says—"  has  had  disas- 
trous results.     While  every  congregation  devoted  itself 

1  Report  of  the  Baron  Hirsch  Institution.  According  to  this 
Report,  between  the  years  1891  and  1907  about  9,640,000  Kn.  were 
expended  by  the  Institution  for  school  organisation. 


ADOPTION  OF  COSMOPOLITAN  CULTURE     123 

to  the  support  of  elementary  and  higher  education  for 
the  male  sex,  the  female  sex  was  systematically  kept 
in  ignorance."  In  Russia  the  majority  of  Jewish  girls 
are  taught  nothing  ;  by  the  census  of  1897,  494  per 
cent,  of  Jewish  males,  but  only  28.9  Jewesses,  could 
read.  In  Galicia,  where  education  is  compulsory,  the 
parents  willingly  send  their  girls  to  the  public  (i.e. 
Christian)  schools,  while  they  withhold  their  boys  from 
them  as  much  as  possible.  The  result  is  that  in  general 
knowledge  the  girls  are  much  better  informed  than 
their  Cheder-taught  brothers.  "  It  often  comes  to 
this,"  says  Fleisher,1  "  that  in  many  families  there 
exists  a  regular  dualism— the  male  members  speak 
Yiddish,  and  the  female  speak  Polish,  and  the  two 
cannot  understand  one  another.  The  result  of  these 
unhealthy  conditions  is  seen  in  the  numerous  unhappy 
marriages  and  dissolutions  of  marriage  among  the 
Galician  Jews,  and  also  in  the  so-called  kidnapping 
of  young  girls,  who  are  often  only  too  willing  to  leave 
the  parental  home  and  go  over  to  Christianity."  It 
is  impossible  to  state  more  strongly  the  importance  of 
the  effect  of  education  on  Jewish  conditions. 

The  Jewish  Colonisation  Association  instituted  an 
enquiry  in  the  year  1898-99,  the  results  of  which  were 
published  under  the  title  Material  collected  on  the 
Economic  Condition  of  the  Jews  in  Russia  (2  vols., 
St.  Petersburg,  1904,  Russian).  In  this  it  appeared 
that  507  places  within  the  Pale  of  Settlement,  with 
a  Jewish  population  of  1,420,653,  possessed  altogether 
7,358  Chedarim  and  Talmud  Torah  Schools,  with 
108,289  pupils.  At  this  rate  the  whole  Pale  of  Settle- 
ment would  number   about   370,000   Cheder  pupils ; 

1  Inquiry  into  the  state  of  the  Jewish  population  of  Galicia. 
Jewish  Statistics,  vol.  i.  p.  230  (Berlin,  1903). 


124 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


that  is,  one  to  every  thirteen  Jews.  In  the  Government 
Province  of  Kieff  alone,  an  official  report  for  1900 
counted  165,000  Jewish  children  for  whom  education 
was  obligatory.     Of  these  there  attended  the 


Jewish  Elementary  Schools,  - 

-     13,115  =  13.0%^ 

Christian  Private  Schools,     - 

710=    0.7% 

of  children 

Christian  Public  Schools, 

-       8,280=    8.2% 

-  attending 

Gymnasiums, 

-       4,010=    3.9% 

schools 

Chedarim,     - 

about  75,000  =  74-2%J 

so  that  about  60,000 — probably  mostly  girls — were 
having  no  education  at  all.  Here  the  influence  of  the 
Cheder  is  clearly  seen. 

In  recent  times  the  aversion  to  sending  their  sons  to 
the  public  schools  has  tended  to  disappear.  In  1880 
only  13,618  Jewish  boys  attended  the  public  schools 
of  Galicia  and  Bukovina  (with  22,864  Jewish  girls)  : 
in  1900  the  number  of  boys  had  increased  to  36,999 
and  girls  to  50,322.  In  Galicia,  too,  Jews  are  beginning 
to  attend  secondary  schools.  In  the  Gymnasium  there 
attended 


Year. 

Number  of  Jews. 

Percentage. 

I85I 

1876 

I903-I904 

Polytechnics,  1903- 1904 

260 

963 

4.318 

981 

6.1 
13.5 
19.5 
28.8 

In  Bukovina  the  number  of  Jewish  boys  in  secondary 
schools  rose  from    I55  jn  the  year  1864  to 
512  ,,         1876  to 

1645  „         1903-04. 

In  Russia  also  there  is  a  distinct  wave  which  is  sending 
boys  to  the  public  secondary  schools.  This  is  proved 
statistically  by  the  census  of  1897,  which  showed  that 


ADOPTION  OF  COSMOPOLITAN  CULTURE     125 

the  new  generation  of  Jews  (10-30  years  of  age)  num- 
bered six  or  seven  times  as  many  persons  who  had  had 
secondary  education  as  the  old  generation  (those  over 
50  years  of  age).  Altogether  there  were  in  1897, 
44,631  Jews  ( =  0.89  per  cent.)  who  had  attended 
secondary  schools. 

C.  Increasing  importance  of  secular  schools. 

The  process  of  the  decline  of  the  system  of  specifi- 
cally Jewish  education  which  we  have  been  observing  in 
GaTTcia  and  Russia  during  the  last  10  to  20  years,  had 
set  in  long  before  in  Western  and  Central  Europe,  and 
has  ended  in  the  complete  overthrow  of  the  Cheder. 
Jewish  children  receive  all  their  education  in  secular 
schools,  and  the  efforts  of  the  parents  are  all  directed 
to  secure  if  possible  better  education  than  the  ordinary 
elementary  schools  provide.  The  following  table  shows 
that  the  number  of  Jewish  children  attending  secondary 
schools  (these  including  Gymnasiums,  Polytechnics, 
and,  in  Austria,  Commercial  Schools)  is  far  in  excess 
of  their  proportion  to  the  general  population. 


JEWISH    PUPILS    IN 

BOYS'   HIGH    SCHOOLS. 

In  every 

In  every 

Number  of 

Percentage 

10,000 
Christ. 

10,000 
Jews. 

Country. 

Year. 

Jewish 
Pupils. 

of  Jewish 
Pupils. 

Christ. 

Jew. 

Pupils. 

Pupils. 

Prussia, 

I906 

15.762 

6-53 

6l 

385 

Grand  Duchy  of 

Baden,   - 

IQO5-1906 

1,096 

6.24 

83 

423 

Bavaria,     - 

I905-I906 

1,607 

4.27 

56 

290 

Austria. 

I903-I904 

15,880 

13-74 

33 

106 

Hungary,  - 

1904 

14,790 

21-59 

29 

174 

Alsace-Lorraine, 

I906 

84O 

7.86 

55 

264 

Hamburg,  - 

I906-I907 

I.403 

9.28 

175 

722 

Berlin, 

I905 

4,257 

17-73 

102 

430 

126 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


Similarly  with  secondary  girls'  schools,  where  the  per- 
centage of  Jewesses  was  as  follows  : 

In    Hungary    (excluding 

Croatia  and  Slavoni),  -  1906-07  31.28  percent. 

In  Prussia,      -  1906  8.54 

In  Bavaria,     -  1905-06  7.57 

Taking  boys  and  girls  together,  of  the  total  number 
of  school  children  the  following  received  secondary 
education  : 


Country. 

Year. 

Christians. 

Jews. 

Prussia,       .... 
Bavaria,      .... 
Baden,         .... 
Hamburg,1  - 
Berlin,          - 
Frankfurt-a.-M.,- 

I906-I907 
I905-I906 
I905-I906 
I906-I907 

1906 

I906 

7-93  % 
5-49  % 

714% 
20.94  % 
14.07  % 
26.47  % 

58.91  % 
39-62  % 
45  20  % 
95-59  % 
67-53  % 
86.61  % 

As  regards  Prussia — for  which  we  append  a  separate 
table — only  7.93  per  cent.  Christian  children  receive 
more  than  the  elementary  schooling,  as  against  58.91 
per  cent.  Jewish  children. 

Here  we  see  that  Jewish  children,  though  only 
represented  in  half  their  proportion  in  elementary 
schools,  are  four,  eight  and  ten  times  out  of  propor- 
tion to  their  numbers  in  their  percentage  of  scholars 
in  the  middle,  secondary  boys'  and  secondary  girls' 
schools  respectively.  During  the  last  two  decades  the 
percentage  of  Jewish  school  children  in  Prussia  who 

1  Hamburg  has  Higher  Jewish  Foundation  Schools  with  free 
education. 


ADOPTION  OF  COSMOPOLITAN  CULTURE    127 


SCHOOL   ATTENDANCE    IN    PRUSSIA,    1906. 


Percen- 

Percentage 

Number  of  C 

HILDREN. 

tage  of 

of  Children 

Schools. 

Jewish 
Chil- 
dren. 

Educated. 

Christian. 

Jewish. 

Christian. 

Jewish. 

Elementary     Schools 

(boys  and  girls),     - 

6,206,178 

24,288 

0.39 

92.07 

4I.O9 

Middle    Schools,    etc. 

(boys  and  girls), 

165,684 

5.650 

3-3° 

2.46 

9-56 

Secondary     Girls ' 

Schools, 

I43>550 

13.403 

8.54 

2.13 

22.68 

Secondary     Boys' 

Schools    (Polytech- 

nics, etc.), 

225,482 

15,762 

6.53 

3-34 

26.67 

Total,     - 

6,740,894 

59,103 

0.87 

100.00 

100.00 

supplement  the  elementary  school  education  has  been 
steadily  rising  : 

In  the  year  1886  it  was  46.51  per  cent. 
1891        „    48.55 
1896        „    51.07 
1901         „    56.29 
1906        „    58.91 

This  increase  is  due  to  the  growing  prosperity  of  the 
Jews,  to  their  interest  in  trades  which  demand  educa- 
tion, and  to  their  domicile  in  large  towns  where 
schooling  is  easier  to  obtain.  These  factors  must  be 
added  to  the  already  mentioned  natural  love  of  know- 
ledge inherent  in  the  Jew,  and  should  not  be  forgotten 
when  comparing  the  education  of  Christian  and  Jewish 
children.  An  example  is  furnished  by  Berlin,  where 
in  1906,  14.07  per  cent,  of  Christian  and  67.53  per  cent. 
of  Jewish  school  children  received  supplementary 
education  to  the  elementary  schools — a  far  greater 
disparity  of  numbers  than  elsewhere  in  Prussia. 


128  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

In  contrasting  the  Cheder  with  the  secular  school, 
we  meant  by  secular  those  schools  which  teach 
primarily  secular  subjects  (Arithmetic,  Higher  Mathe- 
matics, Nature  Study  and  Science,  Geography,  History 
and  Languages).  Whether  such  schools  accepted 
pupils  of  any  creed,  or  were  specifically  Jewish  schools 
with  exclusively  Jewish  teachers  and  pupils  was  no 
concern  of  ours,  though  it  is  a  matter  of  some  import- 
ance. In  specifically  Jewish  schools,  along  with  modern 
education,  considerable  time  is  given  to  the  teaching 
of  Jewish  religion  and  Hebrew,  which  instils  into 
the  pupils  a  certain  respect  for  Jewish  tradition  that 
is  altogether  lost  in  Christian  schools.  To  such  schools 
(of  a  specifically  Jewish  character,  but  with  a  modern 
system  of  education)  belong  a  number  of  Jewish  public 
schools  in  Germany,  England  and  America,  the  Baron 
de  Hirsch  schools  in  Galicia,  and  the  schools  of  the 
Alliance  Israelite  Universelle  in  the  East.  In  Prussia 
in  1906  the  240  Jewish  public  schools  were  attended  by 
6,065  Jewish  children,  i.e.  by  one-fourth  of  the  total 
number  of  Jewish  school  children  in  Prussia.  The 
number  of  these  has,  however,  steadily  decreased 
during  the  last  20  years  ;  in  1886  they  numbered 
13,249,  i.e.  37.4  per  cent,  of  Jewish  school  children. 
Similarly,  the  number  of  Jewish  schools  has  decreased 
in  Alsace-Lorraine  from  61  in  1900  to  51  in  1907  ; 
the  Jewish  pupils  going  over  in  large  numbers  to  the 
non-confessional  schools.  Secondary  schools  and  girls' 
high  schools  of  a  specifically  Jewish  character  are  few 
and  far  between  in  Germany.1  By  far  the  greater 
number  of  Jewish  children  in  Prussia  and  Germany 
(more  than  four-fifths)  receive  their  education  side  by 

1  The  best  known  are  the  "  Philanthropin  "  in  Frankfurt-a.-M.,  the 
Jacobson  school  in  Seesen,  and  the  Samson  school  in  Wolfenbuttel. 


ADOPTION  OF  COSMOPOLITAN  CULTURE     129 

side  with  Christian  children,  either  in  primary  or 
secondary  schools  or  in  the  "  Gymnasiums."  The 
only  difference  consists  in  the  religious  instruction 
which  in  Germany,  France  and  England  is  limited 
to  a  few  hours  a  week  and  includes  Hebrew  and 
Jewish  history ;  instruction  in  these  subjects  is 
usually  given  by  a  special  teacher  authorised  by  the 
congregation. 

D.  The  Universities. 

Just  as  they  throng  to  the  higher  schools,  so  do  the 
Jews  throng  to  the  Universities,  in  Eastern  as  much 
as  in  Western  Europe.  Till  the  year  1760  the  few  Jews 
who  went  in  for  study  (almost  exclusively  medicine) 
had  to  betake  themselves  to  Dutch,  Danish  and 
Italian  Universities,  except  for  a  few  isolated  cases  in 
Halle,  Gottingen  and  Frankfurt-a.-O.:  1  towards  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  Jewish  student  was 
already  no  rarity,  and  in  the  nineteenth  century  the 
number  of  Jewish  students  at  German  Universities  had 
increased  in  the  same  degree  as  Jews  had  advanced  in 
material  prosperity  and  in  the  general  standard  of 
education.  As  their  increasing  wealth  enabled  them 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  their  sons'  education  at  the 
Universities,  so  their  improved  social  status  and 
education  enabled  them  to  regard  University  education 
very  differently  from  their  attitude  of  100  and  150 
years  ago — or  as  the  Galician  Jews  look  upon  it  to-day. 
In  Galicia,  owing  to  the  lack  of  a  Jewish  middle  class 
there  is  no  bridge  between  the  University-bred  doctor 
or  lawyer  and  the  great  mass  of  Jewish  poor. 

1  The  first  Jewish  student  in  Prussia  was  Tobia  Kohen,  who  re- 
ceived a  special  permit  from  the  Great  Kurfurst  about  1675  to  study 
medicine  at  Frankfurt-a.-M. 

I 


130 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


The  following  table  shows  the  number  of  Jews 
studying  at  Prussian  Universities  and  their  principal 
branches  of  study.  (It  should  be  mentioned  here  that 
Jewish  theology  is  included  in  the  Faculty  of 
Philosophy.) 


Of  the  Total  Population  there 

Percentage  of  Total  Popu- 

studied in  Prussian  Universities 

lation  Studying 

During 
the  Terms. 

0 

c 

3 

jo 

'-3 

V 

a 
0 
« 

u 

0 

-a 
3 

a, 

aj 

.s 

>> 

a 
0 

0 

0 

.J2 
3 

UH 

3 

s 

3 

>— > 

§ 

0* 

0 

c 

c 

f 

1886-87-9I 

_ 

193 

644 

297 

8.22 

18.55 

8.IO 

H-95 

8.98 

Jews 

189I-92-95-96 

— 

266 

529 

259 

9.17 

17.07 

8.12 

II.47 

8.97 

\ 

1899-99-I9OO 

— 

383 

453 

364 

8.67 

14.60 

7.16 

9-52 

8. 11 

1905-05-06 



539 

319 

443 

9-35I6.I4 

4.88 

7-73 

6-97 

( 

1886-87-91 

3143  2155  2827 

3371  91.78I81.45  91.90 

88.05 

91.02 

Non- 

1891-92-95-96 

25622638)2572 

292690.8382.9391.88 

88.53 

91.03 

Jews 

1899-99-1900 

21994035I2646 

471891.3385.4092.84 

91.48 

91.89 

{ 

1905-05-06 

18475226JI658 

863590.6583.8695-12 

92.27 

93-03 

It  shows  that  the  average  number  of  Jews  during 
the  summer  and  winter  terms  of  1905-06  was  6.97  per 
cent,  of  all  the  students.  The  medical  faculty,  with 
16.14  per  cent.,  claims  the  greatest  number  of  Jewish 
students  in  proportion  to  the  total  number  of  students 
engaged  in  this  faculty,  then  comes  jurisprudence  with 
9.35  per  cent.,  and  lastly  philosophy  with  4.88  per 
cent.  During  the  last  two  decades  Jews  have  shown 
an  increasing  preference  for  jurisprudence ;  their 
numbers  have  increased  in  this  faculty  (while  they 
have  decreased  in  medicine) — an  increase  which,  it 
must  be  remarked,  is  not  confined  to  Jewish  students 
alone.  If  we  compare  the  proportion  of  any  hundred 
Jewish  students  in  each  faculty  in  1886-87-91  with  the 


ADOPTION  OF  COSMOPOLITAN  CULTURE    131 

proportion  1905-06,  we  shall  see  that  the  percentage 
in  the  faculty  of  jurisprudence  has  risen  from  17.02  to 
41.43,  in  the  faculty  of  medicine  has  fallen  from  56.79 
to  24.52,  and  in  the  faculty  of  philosophy  has  risen 
from  26.19  to  34.05.  The  proportion  of  Jews  to  the 
whole  number  of  students  has  fallen  from  8.98  per  cent, 
in  1886-91  to  6.97  per  cent,  in  1905-06.  But  this 
must  be  ascribed  to  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Christian 
population,  and  it  must  not  be  thought  that  Jews 
are  behind-hand  in  sending  their  sons  to  University. 
Thus  in  18S6-91  of  10,000  Jews  30.48  were  students, 
whereas  in  1905-06  their  percentage  was  31.77  per  cent. 
Their  proportion  in  1886-91  was  almost  seven  times 
as  large  as  that  of  the  Christian  population  when 
there  were  only  4.71  students  to  every  10,000  of  the 
population. 

The  South  German  Universities  have  no  statistics 
with  regard  to  the  religion  of  the  students.  The  Uni- 
versity of  Strassburg  alone  furnished  the  following 
figures  :  For  the  summer  term  1907,  of  1,613  students, 
90  or  5.6  per  cent,  were  Jews.  Of  these  19  belong  to 
the  faculty  of  jurisprudence,  32  to  that  of  medicine, 
17  to  that  of  philosophy,  and  22  to  the  faculty  of 
mathematics  and  natural  science. 

In  Austria  in  the  academic  year  1903-04,  3,016  Jews 
were  studying  at  Universities,  making  15.54  Per  cent, 
of  the  whole  number  of  students.  In  comparison  to 
their  numbers  there  are  four  times  as  many  Jewish  as 
Christian  University  students.  Of  the  3,210  Jewish 
students  of  the  winter  term  1903-04 — 

1,729  or  53.9  per  cent,  were  studying  Jurisprudence. 
681  or  21.2         ,,         ,,         ,,  Medicine. 

800  or  24.9        „        „        „  Philosophy. 


132 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


At  the  same  time  of  15,751  students  of  other  creeds — 

7,686  or  48.8  per  cent,  were  studying  Jurisprudence. 
1,828  or  n. 6       „  ,,  ,,  Medicine. 

6,237  or  39-6       „  ,m  >>  Philosophy. 

Hence  we  see  the  Austrian  Jewish  students  applying 
themselves  to  Medicine  in  greater  numbers  than  their 
Christian  fellows,  while  they  are  behind  them  in  the 
philosophical  faculty.1  Besides  the  Universities,  the 
great  technical  schools  of  Austria  numbered  among 
their  pupils  in  1904,  1,231  Jews,  i.e.  17.66  per  cent,  of 
their  total  number— 6,978  ;  the  high  school  for  agri- 
culture 3  per  cent.  The  conditions  in  Hungary  may 
be  seen  from  the  following  table  : 


Studying. 


During  the 
Year 


1886-1890 
1896-1900 
I90I-1905 
I907 


At  the  Universities. 


Juris- 
prudence. 


<  5 


43717.08 
IO9622.91 
I558J25-63 


Philosophy. 


44 
114 
322 


10.69 
12.94 
10.37 


167026.7326615.95 


Medicine. 


670 
353 
376 

718 


52.55 
45-43 
44.66 
47.80 


Chemistry. 


19 

28 

52 

II4 


7.42 

17-95 
26.13 

34-03 


All  Subjects. 


1 1 70 

1591 

2308 
2768 


26.O4 
24.II 
26.53 
28.38 


In 

Technical 

High 

Schools. 


502 
5IO 
646 
506 


37-89 
40.60 
44.80 
40-39 


Here  in  1907  there  were  2,768  Jewish  students,  making 
28.38  per  cent,  of  all  the  students.  These  went  in  for 
philosophy  and  chemistry  to  a  smaller,  and  for  medicine 
to  a  greater,  extent  than  their  Christian  fellows,  and 
for  jurisprudence  in  about  equal  numbers.  Their  atten- 
dance at  the  technical  high  schools  is  remarkable,  506 
or  40.39  per  cent,  of  the  students  being  Jews.     Taking 

1  The  University  of  Czernowitz  had  relatively  the  greatest  number 
,of  Jews;  277  out  of  a  total  of  668  students  in  1903-1904. 


ADOPTION  OF  COSMOPOLITAN  CULTURE    133 

the  numbers  at  the  universities  and  technical  schools 
together,  there  are  six  times  as  many  Jews  as  Christians 
(in  proportion  to  their  numbers)  and  one-half  of  the 
future  doctors  and  engineers  will  be  Jews. 

"Even  in  Russia  the  pressure  of  Jews  to  the  Univer- 
sities is  very  great,  but  since  the  law  of  December,  1886, 
the  Russian  Government  has  limited  the  percentage 
of  Jews  at  the  Universities.  In  recent  years  the  re- 
stricted percentage  for  Petersburg  and  Moscow  was 
3  per  cent.,  for  Kasan,  Charkow,  Dorpat  and  Tomsk 
5  per  cent.,  for  Warsaw,  KiefE  and  Odessa  10  per  cent, 
of  the  total  number  of  students.  That  this  percentage 
is  not  always  rigidly  enforced  becomes  evident  when  we 
see  that  in  1899  there  were  1,757  Jewish  students  at  all 
the  Universities,  making  a  percentage  of  10.9  (as  against 
556  =  6.8  per  cent,  in  1880).  But  for  the  most  part 
the  law  is  enforced,  and  a  great  number  of  Jews  are 
thereby  excluded  from  Russian  Universities.  The 
result  is  that  the  Jewish  youth  are  forced  to  go  to 
foreign  Universities.  The  number  of  Russian  Jews 
who  for  this  reason  frequent  Swiss,  and  to  a  lesser 
degree  French  and  German,  Universities,  may  be  roughly 
estimated  at  2,000  *  to  which  must  be  added  the  statis- 
tically still  unknown  numbers  of  those  who  go  to 
high  schools,  polytechnics,  commercial  schools  and  art 
schools.  Many  of  these  Russo- Jewish  students,  male 
and  female,  have  a  bitter  struggle  to  secure  their 
education.  But  in  addition  to  their  thirst  for  know- 
ledge and  native  energy,  they  have  a  great  incentive 
in  the  fact  that  the  University  diploma  alone  can  free 
them  from  many  oppressive  laws,  and  in  particular 
gives  them  the  right  to  live  outside  the  limits  of  the  Pale 
of  Settlement. 

1  Compare  Zeitschrift  fur  Bern.  u.  Stat,  der  Juden,  1905,  vol.  ix. 


134  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

E.  Modern  culture  and  assimilation. 

If  we  examine  all  the  subjects  which  go  to  make  up 
the  education  of  the  modern  Jewish  student,  we  find 
that  in  all  progressive  countries  it  consists  of  purely 
secular  subjects  with  no  bearing  on  the  Jewish  religion. 
And  in  these  countries  Jewish  children  receive  more  of 
this  secular  education  than  Christian  children,  since 
they  frequent  the  high  schools  and  Universities  in 
greater  numbers.  In  those  countries  where  state  edu- 
cation is  not  compulsory  the  majority  of  Jewish 
children  do  indeed  receive  a  specifically  Jewish  educa- 
tion in  the  Cheder,  but  in  recent  years  a  distinct  move- 
ment in  favour  of  secular  elementary  school  education 
is  observable  in  Russia  and  Galicia  where  the  Cheder 
once  reigned  supreme.  We  have  devoted  so  much 
attention  to  the  question  of  the  education  of  Jewish 
children  because  we  regard  the  spread  of  modern  school 
education  among  the  Jews  as  the  chief  cause  of  the 
ferment  in  the  spiritual  life  of  the  Jews,  and  the  prin- 
cipal factor  in  the  process  of  denationalisation  which 
is  going  on  within  Judaism  to-day  before  our  very  eyes. 
The  modern  school  education  in  its  present  form  is 
fatal  to  Jewish  tradition,  and  is  rooting  out  the  spiritual 
life  which  rested  on  that  tradition.  This  process  is 
the  more  complete  the  longer  and  the  more  strongly 
the  Jewish  children  come  under  the  influence  of  secular 
education  ;  it  is  especially  marked  in  those  children 
who  attend  high  schools  and  Universities. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  explain  this  psychologically. 
The  Jewish  child  of  Eastern  Europe  who  goes  straight 
from  his  orthodox  home  to  the  gymnasium,  not  only 
has  to  renounce  "  Jargon  "  for  the  language  of  the 
country,  but  he  comes  into  contact  with  the  accumula- 


ADOPTION  OF  COSMOPOLITAN  CULTURE    135 

tion   of   twenty   centuries   of   different   culture.     The   . 
culture  of  his  parents  being  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
no   further   advanced   than   that   of   Judaism   in   the 
thirteenth    and    fourteenth    century,    he    thus    skips 
several  centuries — the  most  fruitful  and  eventful  cen- 
turies, indeed,  in  the  history  of  science  and  discoveries. 
Just  as  a  man  of   the  fourteenth  century  would  be 
unable  to  understand  our  modern  culture,  and  con- 
versely a  man  of  the  twentieth  century  would  find 
the  culture  of  the  fourteenth  strange  to  him,  so  the 
Jewish   child,   after    having  been  through   a  modern 
school,    becomes    a    stranger    to    his    parents,    and  ; 
in    his   turn   can  no    longer   understand  his  parents  '. 
and    the    Jewish    tradition,    nor    desires    to    under- 
stand them.     His  wider  knowledge  and  his  mastery  of 
the  language  of  the  country  cause  him  to  undervalue 
Jewish  culture  and  language  ;   the  cleft  is  so  wide  that 
it  can  no  longer  be  bridged.     Modern  education,  as    j 
Jewish  children  receive  it  to-day,  denationalises  and 
dejudaises  them. 

"  It  was  not  chance,  nor  was  it  a  tribute  to  learning 
that  induced  the  Russian  Government  to  allow  the  Uni- 
versity Jew  the  right  of  domicile  wherever  he  pleased 
in  Russia — the  right  it  so  jealously  denies  to  the  mass 
of  Jews  ;  it  was  the  recognition  that  a  Jew  who  has 
received  a  modern  education  is,  in  the  ordinary  sense 
of  the  term,  no  longer  a  Jew.  The  more  the  Jews 
partake  of  state  education,  the  stranger  and  more 
distant  do  they  become  to  Judaism  as  a  religion  and 
as  a  national  community.  In  Galicia  their  devotion 
to  and  understanding  of  Jewish  tradition  decreases 
according  as  the  school  which  the  boy  attends  is  Cheder, 
Hirsch  school,  public  school,  gymnasium  or  university. 
It  is  as  rare  to  find  a  Cheder  pupil  who  discards  the 


136  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

uses  of  his  religion,  as  it  is  to  find  a  University  Jew  who 
holds  fast  to  them  (apart  from  the  Jews  who  have  been 
recovered  by  Zionism  to  the  practice  of  the  ceremonials). 
Zangwill  has  shown  how  great  is  the  difference  of  out- 
look on  Jewish  religion  and  tradition  between  the 
Russian  emigrant  and  his  English  public  school  son.1 
The  estrangement  of  the  modern  Jewish  child  from 
Judaism  is  aggravated  and  accelerated  by  yet  another 
cause.  If  this  modern  school  education  could  be  im- 
parted not  only  to  a  fraction,  but  simultaneously  to 
the  whole  of  the  young  Jewish  generation,  the  young 
generation  would  probably — wherever  Jews  were  to- 
gether in  large  numbers — develop  a  new  character  of 
its  own  and  feel  homogeneous  ;  and  this,  if  it  did  not 
prevent  assimilation,  would  at  least  retard  it.2  But 
as,  in  point  of  fact,  only  a  minority  of  Jewish  children 
in  Eastern  Europe  receives  this  education,  such  a 
communal  feeling  cannot  exist.  The  Eastern  European 
i  Jew  who  has  received  a  modern  education  remains  an 
?  individual  apart  among  the  Jewish  community  ;  he 
can  no  longer  coalesce  with  them,  and  is  driven  into 
an  isolation  which  too  often  leads  to  Christianity. 

1  In  Zangwill's  Children  of  the  Ghetto  (London,  1901)  there  are 
many  good  remarks  on  this  subject :  "  Orthodox  Jews,"  he  observes, 
"  are  absolutely  astonished  when  people  of  education  remain  true 
to  Judaism."  And  the  scene  in  which  the  dying  son  (who  has 
been  an  inmate  of  an  English  school  for  a  few  years)  can  neither 
understand  the  language  nor  the  thought  of  his  Yiddish-speaking 
father  who  has  been  summoned  to  the  bedside,  is  as  true  as  it  is 
moving. 

2  We  assume  this  from  the  fact  that  in  Galicia  where  the  number 
of  Jewish  children  and  men  who  receive  school  and  University  edu- 
cation is  relatively  far  larger  than  in  Russia,  the  Jewish  students 
are  less  estranged  from  Judaism  than  in  Russia. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

DECREASING  IMPORTANCE  OF  RELIGION. 

A-  TJh£jmgi^£JJthe  Jewish  religion. 

The  Jewish  religion  has  sprung  from  many  roots 
which  extend  back  into  different  periods  of  time.  The 
origin  of  the  monotheistic  idea,  the  belief  in  Jehovah 
as  the  One  and  Only  God,  is  lost  in  the  obscurity  of  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  B.C.  (Jehovah  was 
then  probably  not  worshipped  exclusively,  but  as  the 
mighty  war-god  of  the  Kenites,  and  His  ascendancy 
over  all  other  gods  was  not  recognised  until  after  seven 
centuries  of  constant  religious  struggle.)  Much  later 
and  less  fully  developed  is  the  origin  of  the  belief  in 
immortality,  or  rather  the  belief  in  the  resurrection  of 
the~c!eact.  According  to  Graetz 1  this  idea  was  borrowed 
from  the  Iranian  religions  about  the  fifth  or  fourth  cen- 
tury B.C.,  was  disputed  in  the  book  of  "  Koheleth  "  at 
the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  and  only  gradually  became 
an  article  of  faith.  It  is  found  again  in  the  belief  held 
by  orthodox  Jews  to-day  in  the  coming  of  the  Messiah, 
with  which  is  mingled  the  thought  of  retribution  in 
another  world  for  deeds  committed  in  this. 

Judaism  as  a  religion  owes  its  strength  and  its  power 
of  resistance  through  the  ages  less  to  its  metaphysical 
ideas  than  to  its  cult,  i.e.  its  ceremonies  and  ritual. 

1  History  of  the  Jews,  vol.  ii.  p.  204. 


138  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

These  can  be  traced  back  to  the  year  622  B.C.,  when  at 
the  time  of  the  rebuilding  of  the  Temple,  the  finding 
of  a  book  of  Moses  (Deuteronomy)  stirred  the  King 
Josiah  to  carry  out  sweeping  reforms,  making  Jeru- 
salem the  religious  centre,  and  the  priesthood  there 
all-powerful.  But  Josiah's  reforms  were  followed  by 
the  destruction  of  the  Jewish  State  (586)  and  the  Baby- 
lonian Captivity,  and  would  have  disappeared  without 
any  trace  if  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  one  hundred  years 
later,  had  not  led  the  people  back  to  Palestine,  and 
there  revived  and  intensified  observance  of  the  laws. 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah  set  about  to  keep  alive  the  faith 
in  Jehovah  in  the  heart  of  the  nation — now  so  small — 
and  to  preserve  it  from  the  intrusion  of  heathen  gods 
and  their  cults.  The  task  was  a  difficult  one,  and 
the  leaders  of  the  people  thought,  and  rightly, 
that  they  could  only  accomplish  it  by  rigorous 
measures — namely,  by  the  total  exclusion  of  outside 
influence,  by  disallowing  any  mixture  of  blood,  any 
adoption  of  foreign  culture.  Hence  the  prohibitions 
against  marriage  and  eating  with  a  non-Jew,  hence  the 
idea  of  the  special  "  holiness  "  of  the  Jewish  people, 
hence  the  reverence  for  the  Torah  above  and  beyond 
anything  else  in  the  world,  hence  the  indifference  to  all 
foreign  culture.  A  masterpiece  indeed  was  this  achieve- 
ment of  Ezra's  ;  even  H.  S.  Chamberlain  cannot  with- 
hold his  admiration  :  "  The  idea  [of  Ezra's]  of  isolating 
the  nation  by  forbidding  mixed  marriages,  and  of 
rearing  a  noble  race  from  the  hopelessly  mongrel 
Israelite  is  nothing  if  not  brilliant :  equally  so  the  idea 
of  representing  the  purity  of  the  race  as  an  historical 
legacy,  as  the  special,  characteristic  feature  of  the  Jew."1 

1  The  Foundations  of  the  Nineteenth  Century.     It  may  be  of  interest 
to  remark  here  that  Chamberlain  in  this  brilliant  but  very  subjective 


DECREASING  IMPORTANCE  OF  RELIGION    139 

Many  ritual  ordinances — particularly  the  dietary  laws, 
which  cannot  be  defended  on  the  grounds  of  hygiene 
become  comprehensible  when  considered  from  the  stand- 
point that  they  were  designed  to  limit  the  intercours 
of  the  Jew  to  his  own  people,  and  to  prevent  his  mixin 
with  non-Jews.  A  Jew  was  immediately  recognisabl 
by  "the  fringes  of  his  dress  (Zitsith)  ;  a  Jewish  home  by 
the  sign  upon  the  doorpost  (Mesusa) ,  so  that  every 
Jew  was  protected  from  unwittingly  eating  with  a  non- 
Jew  or  entering  a  non- Jewish  house.  The  temptation 
to  do  so  was  ever  present,  as  the  other  inhabitants  of 
Palestine  were  closely  akin  to  the  Jews  in  culture, 
language  and  race.  From  this  point  of  view  we  shall 
consider  the  truth  of  the  assertion  so  often  made,  that 
the  Jews  owe  their  continued  existence  to  their  religion. 
It  is  not  true,  if  by  religion  we  mean  Jewish  mono 
tfieism'fit  is  true  if  by  the  Jewish  religion  we  mean 
the  ritual  incorporating  it,  instituted  by  Ezra's  reforms 
In  this  form  it  became  less  a  religious  "  faith  "  than  a 
religious  organisation  admirably  adapted  for  endur- 
ance— for  the  physical  and  cultural  preservation  of 
the  Jewish  people. 

book  takes  the  contrary  attitude  to  many  of  his  followers  and 
forerunners — to  Eugen  Duhring  in  particular — by  attributing  the 
alleged  inferiority  of  the  Jews  not  to  race  but  to  the  religious  doc- 
trines instituted  by  Ezra  and  Nehemiah.  "It  is  senseless  to  call 
an  Israelite  a  Jew,  though  his  descent  is  beyond  question,  if  he  has 
succeeded  in  throwing  off  the  fetters  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  and  if 
the  Law  of  Moses  has  no  place  in  his  brain,  and  contempt  of  others 
no  place  in  his  heart. ...  A  purely  humanised  Jew  is  no  longer  a  Jew, 
because  by  renouncing  the  idea  of  Judaism,  he  ipso  facto  has  left 
that  nationality,  which  is  composed  and  held  together  by  a  complex 
of  conceptions — by  a  '  faith ' ' '  (see  page  491).  There  area  few  millions 
of  such  Jews.  It  shows  how  little  Chamberlain  knows  Jewish  con- 
ditions of  the  present  day,  when  he  proposes  to  set  aside  these  Jews, 
and  consider  as  Jews  only  the  ultra-orthodox  who  in  his  "  Judaised  " 
Western  Europe  are  only  a  small  minority  of  the  Jews  themselves. 


; 


140  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

The  fact  that  Ezra's  ordinances  held  good  for  so 
many  generations  is  due  in  the  first  place  to  the  manner 
in  which  they  were  conveyed — as  religious  command- 
ments, laws  of  Godj  obeyed,  as  with  all  primitive 
people,  out  of  fear  of  arousing  the  anger  of  God.  With 
every  nation  the  social  institutions  which  are  bound 
up  with  religion  endure  the  longest.  We  need  only 
point  to  divisions  of  caste  in  India  which,  unjust  as  they 
seem  to  us,  have  endured,  thanks  to  their  religious 
authority,  for  thousands  of  years.  The  Armenians  to- 
day, deprived  of  their  political  independence,  make  the 
Church  the  basis  of  their  claim  to  national  identity, 
and  thus  preserve  an  obstinate  and  not  easily  assailable 
existence.  Again,  Ezra's  laws  derived  much  of  their 
strength  from  the  fact  that  they  were  not  merely 
theoretical  teachings,  but  practical  rules  of  life.  Had 
the  isolation  of  the  Jewish  nation  been  based  only  on 
the  strength  of  the  faith  in  Jehovah,  it  would  not  have 
survived  the  centuries,  for  theoretical  ideas  are  apt  to 
become  weakened  and  changed  in  the  course  of  time. 
On  the  other  hand,  traditional  laws  and  customs  of 
daily  life  have  a  strong  hold  and  endure  even  when  the 
idea  which  they  express  has  long  ago  been  forgotten  or 
discredited  ;  they  then  become  superstitions,  and  are 
thought  to  possess  secret  powers.  Theories  are  always 
subject  to  being  refuted  by  proofs,  ingrained  customs 
are  more  difficult  to  uproot. 

Thirdly,  the  Jews  after  the  dispersion  were  economi- 
cally in  a  unique  position  among  the  nations.  They 
alone  carried  on  the  trades  of  merchants  and  money- 
lenders among  agricultural  peoples,  and  their  attitude 
towards  their  non- Jewish  surroundings  was  exceptional, 
and  indeed  often  hostile.  Hence  they  did  not  come 
into  close  intercourse  with  non- Jews,  and  there  was  no 


DECREASING  IMPORTANCE  OF  RELIGION    141 

temptation  for  them  to  discard  their  religious  ordi- 
nances. Where,  as  was  the  case  in  Egypt  and  South 
Italy,  the  non- Jewish  population  was  no  longer  engaged 
in  agriculture,  but  lived  under  the  same  system  of  trade 
and  exchange,  and  where,  therefore,  the  social  antithesis 
no  longer  existed,  the  Jews  mixed  freely  with  their 
neighbours  and  the  strict  observance  of  their  rites 
was  soon  dropped. 

The  idea  of  Israel  being  a  "  chosen  "  people  only  took 
practical  form  in  the  time  'of  Ezra.  When  we  find 
Christians  in  the  Middle  Ages  forbidden  to  eat  with 
Jews  or  intermarry  with  them,  this  is  only  reciprocation 
of  the  Jewish  practice.  If  the  Jews  had  not  separated 
themselves,  the  Christians  would  not  have  separated 
them,  there  would  have  been  no  Ghettos,  and  in  spite 
of  the  difference  of  race — which,  in  the  first  ten  Christian 
centuries,  when  the  Jews  lived  along  the  coast  of  the 
Mediterranean,  was  less  marked  than  during  the  next 
1,000  years  when  they  lived  among  the  peoples  of 
Northern  Europe — the  Jews  would  undoubtedly  have 
been  swallowed  up  by  Christianity  and  Islam  during  ; 
the  Middle  Ages.  The  fact  that  the  Samaritans,  who 
live  by  Jewish  law,  have  managed  to  survive  since  the 
time  of  Jesus  to  this  day  as  a  separate  community  in 
Palestine  (in  Nablous)  is  a  proof  of  the  effectiveness  of 
the  Jewish  law  in  preserving  a  nation  apart. 

The  later  religious  movements  in  Judaism — the 
schools  of  Hillel  and  Shammai  in  the  time  of  Jesus,  the 
learned  Rabbis  of  the  Talmud,  and  the  great  teachers 
of  the  Middle  Ages — made  no  change  in  Ezra's  and 
Nehemiah's  reform,  which  made  religious  culture,  en- 
veloped in  a  network  of  ritual  and  ceremonies,  the 
centre  of  Jewish  life  ;  they  only  continued  it  in  a  straight 
line  and  built  a  monument  of  literal  interpretation  and 


142  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

extraordinary  dialectic  around  it.  The  majority  of  the 
religious  injunctions  must  assuredly  have  had  a  prac- 
tical meaning  for  the  author  of  Deuteronomy  and  for 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  but  they  had  lost  all  living  interest 
and  practical  significance  in  the  Talmudic  and  post- 
Talmudic  ages,  chiefly  through  absolutely  changed 
conditions.  Shorn  of  their  rational  foundation,  they 
remained  nothing  but  a  complicated  system  of  rules, 
their  only  justification  being  their  supposed  Divine 
origin  ;  and  as  no  other  basis  was  accounted  necessary, 
they  were  studied  as  Divine  commands,  and  the  very 
letters  were  interpreted  as  something  holy. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  general  spiritual  progress, 
Chamberlain  is  quite  justified  in  saying  that  Ezra's 
reform,  by  substituting  the  imposed  authority  of  the 
I  "  Law  "  for  the  free  and  lofty  conception  of  prophetic- 
religion — the  religion  of  Amos,  Hosea,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah 
— is  a  set-back  to  religious  progress.1  Nevertheless 
a  Jew  who  loves  his  people  must  be  grateful  to  Ezra  for 
having  been  the  means  of  preserving  the  nation,  for 
"  Israel  has  been  saved  by  her  ritual."  2 

B.  Jewish  orthodoxy  in  the  present  day. 

The  Jewish  religion  to-day  is  thoroughly  disorganised. 
It  includes  a  hundred  varieties  between  the  "  fromm  " 
(pious)  Jew,  who  would  surfer  any  hardship  rather  than 
neglect  the  smallest  religious  precept,  to  the  "  en- 
lightened Jew,"  whose  adherence  to  Judaism  only 
becomes  apparent  when  he  is  buried  in  a  Jewish  ceme- 
tery. We  may  say  that  there  are  about  six  million 
such  "  fromm  "  Jews  and  three  million  "  enlightened," 
while  the  remainder  fill  in  the  intermediate  stages. 

1  The  Foundations  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  vol.  i.  p.  436. 

2  Leroy-Beaulieu,  The  Jews  and  Anti-Semitism. 


DECREASING  IMPORTANCE  OF  RELIGION   143 

The  orthodox  Jew  still  bases  his  life  on  Ezra's  legis-  1 
lation  ;  his  whole  life  is  saturated  with  religion.  The 
cleaning  of  a  vessel  (as  Bruno  Bauer  has  remarked)  is 
not  a  household  duty,  it  is  the  highest  duty  a  man  can 
have — a  religious  duty.  Before  he  touches  a  morsel  I 
of  food,  he  begins  the  day  with  religion,  i.e.  with 
attendance  at  a  house  of  prayer  and  with  praying  ; 
the  evening  ends  in  the  same  way.  For  him  there  can 
be  no  festival  and  no  joy  outside  his  religion.  The 
joyful  events  in  family  life,  marriage,  circumcision,  etc., 
bear  a  pre-eminently  religious  character.  The  profane 
way  in  which  Christians  celebrate  such  events  with  sing- 
ing and  dancing  is  absolutely  foreign  to  the  pious  Jew  ; 
his  one  recreation  is  to  go  to  the  Beth  Hamidrash  (house 
of  learning)  on  Sabbath  afternoons,  and  there  study 
the  old  Hebrew  writings  and  discuss  them  with  friends. 
It  is  characteristic  that  even  social  organisations  such 
as  the  trades  unions  of  Jewish  workmen  in  Russia,  are 
founded  on  the  possession  of  a  scroll  of  the  Law,  and  a 
communal  divine  service  in  a  common  house  of  prayer.1 

There  is  something  "  out-of-the-way/ '  something 
extremely  pathetic,  even  if  it  be  not  very  lofty  and 
exalted,  in  the  religious  feeling  of  an  Eastern  European 
Jew — a  spirit  which  cannot  be  awakened  in  the  "  en- 
lightened "  Jew  of  Western  Europe.  To  the  orthodox 
Jew  the  existence  of  an  ever-present,  all-seeing  God  is 
the  alpha  and  omega  of  his  thought.  He  connects 
the  events  of  every-day  life,  in  business  and  family, 
directly  with  his  observance  of  the  ritual ;  he  sees 
everywhere  the  hand  of  God  ever-present,  punishing 
and  rewarding.  The  neglect  of  a  religious  ordinance 
and  a  subsequent  unpleasantness  in  business  are  to 

1  Sara  Rabinowitsch,  The  Organisation  of  the  Jewish  Proletariat  in 
Russia,  p.  9. 


144  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

him  obviously  matter  of  cause  and  effect.  We  should 
call  much — perhaps  most — of  his  religious  thought 
superstition  ;  but  who  can  draw  the  line  between  faith 
and  superstition  ?  It  is  this  very  submission  to  the 
Law,  and  the  ensuing  feeling  of  constant  communion 
with  the  God-head,  that  reconciles  him  to  life,  makes 
his  miserable,  dreary  existence  seem  necessary  and 
important.  Death,  and  the  reverence  for  departed 
spirits  that  goes  hand  in  hand  with  it,  is  one  of  the 
mainsprings  of  all  religion  ;  thus,  it  is  noteworthy  that 
it  is  a  sacred  duty  for  the  orphan  son  of  an  Eastern 
European  Jew  to  recite  the  "  Kaddish "  in  the 
synagogue  every  day  for  a  whole  year,  after  the  death 
of  his  father,  and  again  every  year  at  the  anniversary 
of  the  death,  the  Kaddish  being  a  prayer  in  praise 
of  God,  the  recital  of  which  is  thought  to  bring  peace 
and  repose  to  the  soul  of  the  departed.  The  burning 
of  an  oil  lamp  (Jahrzeit)  accompanies  the  ceremony. 
The  anniversaries  of  the  deaths  of  great  Rabbis  are 
not  only  celebrated  by  their  successors,  but  by  the 
whole  congregation,  in  prayer.1 2 

1  The  "  Chassidim  "  celebrate  the  anniversaries  of  the  deaths  of 
their  "  Zaddikim  "  (holy  ones)  by  a  festive  meal,  as  the  deaths  of 
such  men  are  not  sad  but  joyful  events,  signifying  their  union  with 
God. 

2  In  proof  that  this  pious  remembrance  of  the  dead  is  a  develop- 
ment of  ancestor  worship — worship  of  departed  spirits — we  may  cite 
the  fact  that  in  Eastern  Europe  prayers  are  offered  up  not  only  for  but 
to  the  dead.  I  visited  the  old  Jewish  cemetery  of  Cracow  in  the 
spring  of  1903  on  the  very  day  of  the  "  Jahrzeit  "  of  the  famous 
Rabbi  Moses  Isserles  (buried  here  in  1572)  ;  Jews  were  flocking  to 
the  cemetery  to  pray  and  lament  at  the  Rabbi's  grave.  Most  of 
them  wrote  down  their  particular  prayer  or  wish  in  Hebrew  on  a 
piece  of  paper  and  either  threw  these  papers  on  the  grave  or 
fastened  them  to  the  tombstone.  Both  grave  and  stone  were 
ultimately  quite  hidden  under  the  crowd  of  papers,  which  bore 
every  variety  of  appeal  to  the  Rabbi  to  come  to  their  help. 


DECREASING  IMPORTANCE  OF  RELIGION    145 

An  outstanding  feature  of  the  religious  life  is  the 
sanctification  of  the  Sabbath.  The  poorest  Jew,  after 
a  week's  toil  as  pedlar  or  artisan,  throws  off  all  his 
cares  on  the  Sabbath,  and  abstains  from  all  manner 
of  work  from  the  Friday  to  the  Saturday  evening.  It 
is  the  strict  observance  of  the  Sabbath  more  than  any- 
thing else  that  distinguishes  and  separates  the  Jew 
from  his  non- Jewish  surroundings. 

The  sect  of  Chassidim  occupies  a  singular  position 
within*  the  body  of"  East  European  Judaism.  Its 
adherents  are  found  in  the  greatest  numbers  in  Galicia 
and  Bukovina,  where  they  number  one-half  of  all  the 
Jews  there  ;  in  Russia  and  Hungary  their  numbers 
are  also  very  considerable.  The  Chassidim  (i.e.  the 
pious)  are  distinguished  for  a  certain  optimism  of 
religious  belief,  and  for  the  faith  they  have  in  their/ 
Zaddikim  (holy  ones),  who  are  singled  out  by  their 
transcendent  piety  and  asceticism,  and  profess  to  be  ■; 
nearer  God  than  other  people,  understanding  and  j 
knowing  Him  better  than  they.  Every  Zaddik  has  | 
his  followers — many  or  few  according  to  his  fame 
and  personality — and  these  are  scattered  far  and  wide 
in  many  places.  These  followers  often  meet  together 
in  special  houses  of  prayer  (Klaus),  and  their  faith  in 
the  distant  Zaddik  binds  them  together  as  a  separate 
community.  The  Zaddik  is  sought  after  for  advice  in 
every  difficulty — be  it  the  launching  of  a  business  a 
legal  dispute,  a  dangerous  illness,  an  operation — the 
Rabbi  is  the  final  authority  for  his  followers,  and  the 
lawyer  and  physician  are  set  aside.  The  veneration 
in  which  these  wonder-working  Rabbis  are  held  is 
extraordinary.  A  believer  is  happy  if  he  can  secure 
even  a  fish-bone  out  of  the  dish  from  which  the  holy 
man  has  eaten.     He  wears  a  coin  which  has  received 

K 


146  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

the  Zaddik's  benediction  as  an  amulet,  and  often 
sacrifices  a  whole  year's  earnings  to  make  a  journey  to 
the  Zaddik  on  a  high  festival  and  bring  him  a  present. 
At  the  period  of  these  festivals,  Galician  trains  are 
crowded  with  these  strange  pilgrims.  These  wonder- 
working-Rabbis are  generally  members  of  famous 
families — their  repute  handed  down  from  father  to  son 
— and  they  grow  so  rich  on  the  presents  brought  them 
by  the  pilgrims  that  they  often  live  in  magnificent 
houses  (in  glaring  contrast  to  the  unspeakably  miser- 
able dwellings  of  the  Galician  Jews),  and  support  a 
large  staff  of  parasites,  who  live  on  the  crumbs  they 
leave.  Their  influence  on  their  followers  has  the 
power  of  hypnotism.  One  must  have  witnessed  the 
sight  of  the  multitudes  of  Jews  gathered  together  in  a 
Synagogue  during  high  Festival  at  Belz  Czortkow  or 
Sadagora,  when  the  famous  wonder-Rabbi  assists,  in 
order  to  have  an  idea  of  this  hypnotism.  The  thousand- 
headed,  serried  mass  is  swayed  this  side  and  that  like 
ears  of  corn  in  a  wheat-field  ;  a  low  moan  sometimes 
swelling  into  an  agonised  wail  passes  through  it,  as 
from  a  broken  heart — this  is  no  prayer  in  the  ordinary 
sense  of  the  word,  it  is  delirium,  transport,  ecstasy. 
Undoubtedly  Chassidism  is  a  retrogression,  an  obstacle 
to  any  spiritual  progress,1  but  there  can  be  no  hope 
of  exterminating  it,  so  long  as  the  present  wretched 
social  condition  of  the  Jews,  on  which  Chassidism 
thrives,  continues.  The  spiritual  energy  of  the  Jew 
created  an  imaginary  world  when  the  real  world  was 
lost  to  him.     He  found  an  outlet  for  his  spirit  in  the 

lA  Jew  whom  I  met  in  Belz  (a  stronghold  of  Chassidism),  on 
hearing  that  I  came  from  Prussia,  remarked  characteristically  that 
200  years  ago  famous  men  had  lived  there  too.  For  him  Prussia, 
since  it  ceased  to  produce  famous  Talmudists,  had  sunk  to  barbarism. 


DECREASING  IMPORTANCE  OF  RELIGION    147 

mysticism  and  superstition  of  Chassidism,  an  escape 
from  the  sorrows  of  existence  in  his  faith  in  the  power 
of  the  Rabbi ;  it  was  the  one  bright  light  of  his  life, 
the  guarantee  that  sooner  or  later  better  times  would 
come.  With  all  peoples,  at  all  times,  whenever  pres- 
sure from  without  crushes  natural  action,  the  spirit 
evolves  these  fantastic  conceptions,  and  superstition 
and  mysticism  spring  up.  The  esoteric  doctrines  of 
the  Baale  Emunoth  in  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries, 
and  the  Cabbala-study  of  the  fifteenth  to  the  eighteenth 
centuries  have  the  same  origins.  Some  hope  of  a 
brighter  future  was  essential  to  the  oppressed  Jew  ;  he 
could  not  live  without  it,  he  needed  it  to  reconcile  him  f 
to  life. 

Even  with  non-Chassidic  orthodox  Jews,  religious 
feeling  often  degenerates  into  superstition  and  faith  in 
miracles.  How  many  look  upon  the  fringes  (Zitzith), 
the  phylacteries  (Tephillin),  the  signs  on  the  door- 
posts (Mezuzoth),  otherwise  than  as  amulets  and  pre- 
cautions against  evil  spirits  (comparable  to  the  super- 
stition of  the  horse-shoe).1 

Religion  even  controls  the  wearing  of  the  hair,  and 
the  costume  of  the  orthodox  Jew.  A  Jew  may  not 
cut  off  his  hair  at  the  temples,  hence  the  well-known 
side-curls  (in  Russia  he  is  not  allowed  to  wear  these)  ; 
his  wife,  on  her  marriage,  has  to  cut  off  all  her  hair, 
and  is  condemned  to  wear  a  head-shawl  or  wig  all  her 
life.  The  long  gaberdine  which  the  Eastern  Jew  wears 
was  originally  nothing  else  but  the  customary  Polish 
dress  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  century,  which 
the   Jews   adopted.     But,    strange   as   it   may   seem, 

1  See  The  Children  of  the  Ghetto,  by  Israel  Zangwill.  When  the 
old  grandmother  is  told  of  the  sudden  illness  of  her  grandson,  her 
first  words  are,  "  I  wonder  if  he  was  wearing  his  Zitzith  ?  " 


148  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

religion  has  sanctified  this  very  costume,  the  pious 
Jew  refuses  to  discard  it,  and  looks  upon  a  Jew  in 
modern  clothes  as  little  better  than  an  apostate.  A 
Jew,  who  for  the  first  time  exchanges  the  "  kaftan  "  for 
modern  dress,  looks  upon  this  act  as  of  epoch-making 
importance  ;  it  signifies  as  much  to  him  as  conversion 
does  to  the  Western  Jew.  There  is  actually  a  sort  of 
connection  between  orthodoxy  and  the  kaftan,  inas- 
much as  the  Jews  are  most  "  fromm  "  where  there  are 
fewest  in  modern  dress.  In  the  small  towns  of  Eastern 
Galicia  there  is  hardly  a  Jew  who  does  not  wear  a 
kaftan.  In  Cracow  about  one-half  of  all  the  Jews 
wear  them.  Like  the  kaftan,  other  originally  profane 
articles  of  clothing  have  become  sanctified  by  religion. 
The  Portuguese  Jews  of  Amsterdam  still  wear  knee- 
breeches  and  "  dreimaster  "  on  the  Sabbath  (once  the 
fashion  in  Portugal).  And  the  pious  Polish  Jew  still 
wears  the  fur  hat  (streimel),  centuries  ago  the  fashion 
in  Poland,  and  now  an  indispensable  article  of  Sabbath 
clothing.  In  Russia  the  fur  hat  has  been  prohibited 
by  the  Government,  and  a  velvet  or  silk  cap  has  had 
to  be  substituted. 

It  is  certain  that  if  we  except  those  who  blindly 
follow  what  their  neighbours  do  for  fear  of  public 
opinion,  many  Jews  only  observe  the  Law  so  rigidly 
because  they  fear  the  consequences  of  non-observance  ; 
they  believe  that  their  obedience  to,  and  neglect  of, 
the  Laws  are  entered  in  God's  book  as  matters  of 
credit  and  debit,  and  that  the  fate  of  their  "  life  to 
come  "  depends  on  the  balance.  What  makes  this 
sort  of  "  piety  "  often  so  repulsive  is  that  it  leads  to 
keeping  the  letter  of  the  Law  without  the  spirit ;  the 
most  rigid  observance  of  all  the  minutiae  may  go  hand 
in  hand  with  a  bad  character,  with  avarice,  with  hard- 


DECREASING  IMPORTANCE  OF  RELIGION    149 

heartedness  and  perfidy.  But  this  is  not  the  rule, 
and  one  cannot  but  admire  the  Jew  who,  in  an  over- 
crowded train,  will  proceed  to  recite  the  morning 
prayer  with  phylacteries,  praying  shawl  and  all ;  who 
will  spend  his  last  penny  to  secure  the  Sabbath  candles 
— many  towns  within  the  Jewish  area  in  Eastern  Europe 
are  only  lit  up  on  the  occasion  of  this  Friday  night 
illumination — or  who  in  his  old  age  cherishes  the  desire 
to  be  buried  in  Palestine,  in  the  land  of  his  fathers. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  above  remarks  that  Jewish 
orthodoxy  remains  to-day  very  much  the  ceremonial 
religion  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah.     The  spirit  is  overlaid 
by   a   thick   stratum   of   ritual   and   ceremony.     The 
Jewish  religion  in  this  form  has  not  reached  a  very  high 
stage  in  religious  evolution.     But,   as  long  as  these 
forms  suffice  for  the  Jew,   the  religion  has  a  great 
power.     The  proselytising  strength  of  a  religion  is  in  J 
inverse  ratio  to  its  abstractness.     The  more  abstract,  / 
philosophic  and   intangible  it  is,  the  fewer  and  less  j 
fervent  are  its  adherents.      The  blind  unquestioning- 
faith  of  the  Moslem  and  the  orthodox   Jew,  setting; 
at  nought  all  the  discoveries  of  modern  science,  this  is 
a  really  important  factor  in  the  life  of  a  people — not  the 
sceptical  Protestantism  of  our  own  day,  or  the  anaemic 
religious  feeling  of  the  "  enlightened"  Jew.     For  the, 
Mohammedan   and   the   Jew,   prayer   is   no   aesthetic 
pleasure,  as  it  has  tended  to  become  in  Christian  ser- 
vices, with  song  and  organ  ;   it  is  an  earnest  attempt  to 
bring  man  into  line  with  nature.     Worship  in  a  Christian 
Church  in  Eastern  Europe  is  unspeakably  more  beauti- 
ful   than    in    the    neighbouring    synagogue,    but    the 
greater    fervour    is    undeniably    in    the    latter.     The 
Jewish   religion,    partly    through    the    prohibition    to 
represent  God  pictorially,   is   comparatively  poor  in 


150  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

outward  symbols  ;  *  the  Jew  is  therefore  compelled  to 
concentrate  all  his  religious  feeling  on  prayer.  Prayer 
is  the  essence  of  his  religion,  and  it  is  because  of  this 
that  the  Jew  has  still  a  strongly  marked  anthropo- 
morphic conception  of  God.  Only  a  humanly  con- 
ceived God  could  understand  the  torrent  of  feeling 
I  that  is  poured  out  to  Him  in  prayer.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that  the  Catholic  offers  up  his  prayer  and 
his  sacrifice  not  to  God  Himelf,  but  to  his  patron 
Saint. 

C.  Liberal  Judaism. 

LeToy^Beauneu^'is  surprised  "  that  the  Jew  as  soon 
as  he  comes  in  contact  with  outside  influences,  so  often 
goes  from  one  extreme  to  the  other,  from  blind  faith  to 
scepticism,  from  Oriental  tradition  to  the  latest  develop- 
ment of  '  the  Spirit  of  the  Age.'  "  This,  indeed,  is 
the  Achilles'  heel  of  the  Jewish  religion.  It  may  have 
been  the  same  in  former  times  with  other  religions, 
when  religion  was  a  potent  factor  in  cultural  life,  but 
to-day  it  is  confined  to  the  outcome  of  the  Ghetto. 
As  soon  as  the  Jew  steps  out  of  the  Ghetto,  and  begins 
to  take  part  in  the  social  life  of  the  country,  adopting 
its  language  and  culture,  so  soon  does  he  make  himself 
free  of  the  bonds  of  the  Jewish  religion.  This  is  seen 
most  clearly  with  the  English  and  American  Jewish 
immigrants.  "It  is  generally  recognised  that  the 
foreign  Jew  observes  his  religion  less  strictly  than  he 

1  The  British  Museum  contains  a  collection  of  the  religious  symbols 
of  all  nations  and  faiths.  Those  of  the  Jews  (consisting  only  of 
scrolls  of  the  Law,  knives  for  circumcision,  Tallith,  Tephillin,  and 
a  few  other  articles)  probably  occupy  less  space  than  those  of  any 
other  religion. 

iL'Empire  des  Tsars  et  Us  Russes,  vol.  i.  p.  168. 


DECREASING  IMPORTANCE  OF  RELIGION    151 

did  ten  years  ago,"  says  Russell,1  who  is  of  opinion 
that  the  next  generation  will  break  loose  from  ortho- 
doxy altogether.  As  we  have  shown  in  previous 
chapters,  this  detachment  from  religion  is  accomplished 
most  rapidly  when  the  Jew  receives  a  secular  education 
in  his  childhood.  An  East  European  Jew  who  has 
received  a  gymnasium  or  university  education  is 
hopelessly  estranged  from  the  Jewish  religion.  Even 
the  elementary  school  education  is  calculated  to  under- 
mine orthodox  Judaism,  and  it  is  a  very  natural 
instinct  that  impels  the  "  fromm  "  Jew  to  prevent  his 
children  going  to  the  secular  schools,  and  induces  him 
to  prefer  the  inferior  Cheder  education  under  the 
Hebrew  master  (Melamed).  We  see  here  that  the 
far-famed  obstinate  devotion  of  the  Jews  to  their 
religion  arises  not  so  much  from  the  great  spiritual 
power  of  this  religion,  as  from  anxiety  to  shield  it 
from  anything  which  might  destroy  religious  faith. 
The  Jew  must  not  be  allowed  to  doubt,  or  even  to 
harbour  conflicting  thoughts  ;  as  soon  as  he  begins  to 
doubt,  his  fate  is  sealed,  his  secession  from  orthodoxy 
is  a  necessary  result.  The  sceptic  will  never, more  be 
a  pious  Jew. 

A  century  of  unfettered  activity  in  commercial 
affairs,  combined  with  secular  education,  has  sufficed 
to  estrange  Jews  from  their  religion  in  all  economically 
developed  countries  ;  and  whatever  remains  of  that 
religion  is  hopelessly  diluted  and  bloodless.  This  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at.  The  spirit  which  entered 
Europe  with  the  coming  of  the  Capitalistic  era  was 
rationalism,  and  materialism  accompanied  it.  The 
Jew,  who  owes  his  emancipation  to  this  spirit,  is  to-day 
its  most  active  propagandist,  and  the  Jewish  religion 

1  Russell  and  Lewis,  The  Jew  in  London. 


i 


152  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

is  no  more  to  him  than  Protestantism  is  to  the 
enlightened  Protestant  :  a  survival  of  a  former  age, 
not  to  be  thrown  overboard  entirely,  for  old  associa- 
tions' sake,  but  impossible  to  practise.  Not  that  the 
Jew  thinks  his  religion  a  bad  one — on  the  contrary, 
he  considers  the  pure  monotheism  of  the  Jewish 
religion  less  senseless  than  the  Trinity  of  Christi- 
anity ;  he  merely  despises  religion  altogether.  He 
still  keeps  up  some  kind  of  connection  with  it ;  in 
England,  for  instance,  we  have  a  class  of  Jew  called 
"  Yom-kippur  "  Jews,  because  the  Day  of  Atonement 
(Yom-kippur)  is  the  only  day  of  the  year  they  attend 
a  synagogue.  And  in  France  and  Germany  it  is  much 
the  same.  The  observance  of  the  Sabbath  and  the 
Dietary  Laws  are  altogether  discarded  by  the  greater 
number  of  these  Jews.  An  enquiry  instituted  in 
.  Germany  in  1904  showed  that  only  487  congregations 
;  out  of  1,850  held  the  prescribed  daily  service  in  the 
synagogue,  while  1,147  neld  them  on  the  Sabbath 
alone,  and  only  216  on  the  High  Festivals.1  The  con- 
gregations which  still  hold  daily  services  are  to  be 
found  mostly  in  the  Prussian  provinces  of  Posen, 
Hessen  and  Nassau,  and  in  South  Germany  (Bavaria, 
Baden,  Hesse,  and  Alsace-Lorraine).  These  are  the 
districts  where  one  may  still  meet  with  orthodox 
Judaism,  or  at  any  rate  the  remnants  of  it,  in  Germany. 
Its  survival  must  be  attributed  to  the  social  and  cultural 
backwardness  of  the  small  towns  in  which  the  Jews 
live  in  these  parts.  The  orthodox  Jews  to  be  found 
in  the  great  cities  (Frankfurt-a-M.,  Hamburg,  Hal- 
berstaat,  Berlin,  Munich)  belong  partly  to  old  families 
who  inherit  a  great  pride  in  their  race  and  lineage,  and 
partly  to  East  European  immigrants  and  their  children. 

1  Zeitschrift  f.  Dem.  u.  Stat.  d.  Juden,  1905. 


DECREASING  IMPORTANCE  OF  RELIGION    153 

Altogether  about  10-15  per  cent,  of  the  Jews  in  Germany 
may  be  called  orthodox. 

Jewish  religious  activity  during  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury has  confined  itself  to  modernising  the  ritual.  > 
"Reform"  has  been  instituted  everywhere;  consist-  \ 
ing  chiefly  of  beautifying  the  synagogue  building, 
introducing  a  sermon  in  the  language  of  the  country, 
and  an  organ — that  is  to  say,  in  adopting  Christian 
forms  of  service.1  It  is  undeniable  that  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  sermon  and  the  organ  has  made  the  service 
more  aesthetic  than  the  regular  orthodox  service  used 
to  be — held  as  it  was  in  small  dark  rooms  with  no 
pretence  at  decoration,  and  inharmonious  enough  to 
offend  a  sensitive  ear.  But  these  cold,  bare  rooms 
were  lit  up  by  the  intense  religious  fervour  of  the 
Russian  Jews,  to  whom  their  religion  was  life,  and 
who  felt  in  its  observance  all  the  glow  of  a  vital  reli- 
gious experience.  "  Compared  to  these/'  says  Fabius 
Schach,2  "  the  devotion  of  the  Western  Jew  is  cold, 
modern-European  ;  the  national  feeling  is  eliminated, 
the  Jewish  soul  has  dressed  itself  (Toilette  gemacht) 
and  no  longer  appears  in  its  natural  state.  Here  every- 
thing is  ordered  and  timed  and  calculated.  Exquisite 
music  with  organ  and  choir,  an  eloquent  sermon — but 
the  outpouring  of  the  soul,  the  warmth,  are  missing. 

1  It  must  be  said  here  that  musical  accompaniment  in  the  syna-  | 
gogue  is  by  no  means  un-Jewish  :  "  Music  and  song  were  one  of 
the  features  of  the  Temple  service  ;  a  Synagogue  in  Prague  has 
for  centuries  possessed  an  organ,  which  is  played  every  Friday 
evening  and  on  the  Sabbath  ;  one,  two,  and  three-part  singing  is 
fairly  old"  (Zunz,  Die  Gottesdienstl.  Vortrage  der  Juderi).  But  for 
the  most  part  musical  accompaniment  had  quite  disappeared — 
with  the  probable  exception  of  this  synagogue  in  Prague — the  organ 
had  no  place  in  any  Jewish  service,  up  to  the  nineteenth  century. 

2  Ost  und  West. 


154  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

Something  new  and  foreign  has  been  added  to  Judaism 
without  being  able  to  mix  organically  with  it.  Out 
of  the  old  house  of  prayer  has  been  evolved  something 
which  is  neither  Synagogue  nor  church.' '  The  Jewish 
religion  is  dying  gradually  in  Western  Europe.  A 
certain  feeling  of  piety,  and  a  lurking  sense  of  shame 
at  deserting  one's  colours  still  hold  its  adherents 
together.  This  piety  is  indeed  seldom  the  deep  and 
heart-felt  religious  need  of  the  Russian  Jew  ;  it  is  far 
more  often  a  dull  conformity  to  tradition.  It  is  more 
pronounced  where  the  religious  status  of  the  surround- 
ing Christian  population  is  strong  (in  Catholic  South 
Germany,  for  instance),  and  it  is  weakest  where 
rationalism  has  undermined  the  religious  feeling  of  the 
Christian  population  (in  Berlin,  Paris,  and,  in  general, 
all  the  great  cities).  The  doctrine  of  the  mjs^ion^of 
the  rIgnws,  so  largely  preached  from  the  pulpit,  may 
still  be  held  by  a  few  Rabbis  ;  to  the  mass  of  Jews  it  has 
long  ceased  to  carry  either  meaning  or  credence. 

D.  Destructive  forces. 

So  much  is  clear  :  in  so  far  as  the  Jewish  religion  is 
still  a  living  force,  it  is  as  a  ceremonial  religion,  the 
precepts  of  which  have  no  rational  explanation,  but 
are  founded  on  a  belief  in  their  divine  origin.  Many 
attempts  have  been  made  to  show  that  many  of  these 
laws  are  based  on  social  and  hygienic  laws,  which  hold 
good  to  this  day.  But  what  does  it  signify  if,  out  of 
hundreds  of  precepts,  there  should  happen  to  be  one 
which  is  still  hygienically  valuable  ?  We  have  to  deal 
with  the  principle  :  are  the  laws  of  the  ritual  to  stand 
for  all  eternity  on  the  strength  of  their  pretended 
divine  origin  ?  or  are  they  to  succumb  to  the  examina- 
tion of  their  actual  utility  in  the  light  of  advancing 


DECREASING  IMPORTANCE  OF  RELIGION   155 

scientific  knowledge  ?  Should  the  laws  and  customs 
emerge  triumphant  from  the  examination,  the  en- 
lightened Jew  would,  of  course,  have  no  objection  ; 
but  the  orthodox  Jew  would  consider  such  a  thing  an 
unheard-of  sacrilege,  and  indeed  one  must  either  accept 
the  ceremonial  in  its  entirety,  or  reject  it  in  its  entirety. 
Whosoever  believes  in  divine  revelation  will  accept  it.( 
Whosoever  does  not  believe  in  it  must  reject  it,  and  no  | 
Jew  who  has  received  a  modern  education  can  in  the 
light  of  Higher  Criticism  believe  any  longer  in  the 
divine  origin  of  Ezra's  legislation.  To  this  opposition 
of  reason  must  be  added  very  weighty  social  and 
economic  objections.  Many  laws,  which  entailed  no 
hardship  in  their  observance  under  the  conditions  of 
primitive  communication  and  social  isolation,  under 
which  the  Jews  formerly  lived,  are  now  an  almost 
insuperable  burden — such  as  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  and  the  Dietary  Laws.  How  can  the  Jewish 
shopman  compete  with  the  Christian  if,  in  addition  to 
the  legal  day  of  rest,  he  must  observe  his  Sabbath  and 
confine  himself  to  five  working  days  a  week  ?  How 
can  the  Jewish  pupil  of  the  public  schools,  how  can  the 
lawyer,  engineer,  and  civil  servant,  keep  the  Sabbath  ? 
How  can  a  Jew  whose  calling  takes  him  to  a  place  where 
there  is  no  Jewish  congregation  carry  out  the  usages  of 
his  religion  ? 

These  two  forces — modern  science  with  the  resulting 
religious  scepticism,  and  the  change  in  social  conditions 
— are  fighting  against  orthodox  Judaism,  and  will  con- 
quer it  in  those  countries  where  it  still  has  sway,  as  I 
surely  as  they  have  done  in  the  more  economically  I 
advanced  countries.  What  then  remains  of  Judaism 
is  a  feeble  liberalism,  which  is  not  strong  enough  to 
stem  the  tide  of  assimilation  ;    "  the  reformers  "  who  $ 


156  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

hope  for  this  do  not  understand  that  the  complex  of 
ideas  accepted  by  a  mass  of  people  takes  some  time  to 
dissolve,  and  that  tradition  offers  a  tough  resistance  to 
science. 

But  its  fate  is  sealed ;  the  conditions  which  kept 
orthodoxy  alive  so  long — the  social  isolation  of  the 
Jews,  and  their  divorce  from  secular  education — are 
disappearing  with  the  advance  of  capitalism,  and  the 
structure  of  orthodox  Judaism,  deprived  of  their 
support,  will  fall  to  the  ground. 


CHAPTER  X. 

INTERMARRIAGE. 

A.  The  increase  of  intermarriage. 

Since  the  time  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  that  is,  from 
about  400  B.C.,  marriage  between  Jew  and  non-Jew 
has  been  strictly  prohibited.  The  Kohanim  (priests) 
were  not  even  allowed  to  marry  with  those  who  had 
been  converted  to  Judaism.  The  common  people, 
however,  were  permitted  to  do  this,  and  during  the 
Hellenic  period,  and  in  the  Diaspora,  marriage  with 
Jewish  neophytes  was  very  common ;  of  this  the 
Judaised  Chazars  are  a  good  example.  On  the  other 
hand,  during  the  Diaspora,  such  marriages  were 
denounced  by  Christians  as  well  as  by  Jews,  and  were 
forbidden,  under  pain  of  heavy  penalties,  by  the 
Councils  of  Orleans  (a.d.  538),  Toledo  (a.d.  589)  and 
Rome  (a.d.  743).  The  fact  that  these  laws  were  made 
is  thought  by  many  writers  to  be  in  itself  proof  that 
such  intermarriages  did  indeed  take  place — the  Arch- 
bishop von  Gran  (in  Hungary)  mentions  its  existence  in 
a  report  to  the  Pope  in  1229;  but  intermarriage,  towards 
the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages,  as  the  social  position  of 
the  Jews  deteriorated,  became  very  rare,  and  has 
been  since  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries 
till  recently,  a  negligible  quantity.  The  social  and 
religious  gulf  between  Christian  and  Jew  had  become 


158  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

so  wide,  that  that  alone  precluded  the  possibility  of 
intermarriage,  and  rendered  the  legal  prohibition 
quite  unnecessary.  Nevertheless,  this  prohibition 
stands  to  this  day,  and  still  holds  good  in  Spain, 
Portugal,  Russia  and  all  countries  belonging  to  the 
Greek  Church.  In  Mohammedan  countries  intermar- 
riage is  forbidden  by  religious  laws,  which  are  the  only 
laws  concerned  in  matters  of  marriage. 

In  the  following  remarks,  whenever  we  speak  of 
intermarriage,  we  are  leaving  out  of  consideration 
those  cases  in  which  either  of  the  parties  is  converted 
to  the  religion  of  the  other  before  marriage.  Inter- 
marriage in  the  general  sense  of  the  term  implies  the 
union  of  two  persons  who  belong  severally  to  the 
Jewish  and  Christian  religions. 

To  the  anthropologist,  indeed,  change  of  religion  is 
of  no  importance  ;  for  him,  a  marriage  between  Jew 
and  Christian  remains  a  mixed  marriage  with  or  with- 
out conversion — a  marriage  of  two  people  belonging  to 
different  races.  But  in  considering  statistically  the 
spread  of  intermarriage,  we  cannot  deal  with  the 
anthropological  side,  and  for  a  very  good  reason.  In 
Europe,  at  any  rate,  the  race  to  which  the  individual 
belongs  is  not  taken  into  account  by  official  statistics  ; 
probably  because  it  is  exceedingly  difficult — perhaps 
impossible — to  classify  Europeans  in  fixed  anthropo- 
logical groups.  If,  therefore,  we  wish  to  establish  the 
fact  of  the  spread  of  intermarriage  by  statistics,  we 
have  to  look  only  at  the  religion  to  which  the  parties 
belong. 

The  impetus  to  abolish  the  statutes  forbidding 
marriage  between  Christian  and  Jew  came  from  the 
French  Revolution,  and  spread  slowly  from  country 
to  country,  to  Holland,  Belgium,  Denmark,  Scandi- 


INTERMARRIAGE  159 

navia,  England  and  the  United  States,  favoured  by 
the  circumstance  that  marriage  in  these  countries  had 
been  converted  from  a  clerical  to  a  civil  act.  In  Ger- 
many intermarriage  has  been  allowed  since  the  law  of 
1875,  which  in  addition  legalised  all  such  marriages 
already  contracted.  In  Hungary  it  has  been  legal 
only  since  1895  ;  some  of  the  Balkan  States  (notably 
Roumania)  permit  it ;  but  it  is  prohibited  in  Austria, 
Russia,  Spain,  Portugal,  and  the  Mohammedan  coun- 
tries, as  we  have  already  shown.  In  considering  the 
degree  in  which  Jews  and  Christians  avail  themselves  j 
of  these  facilities  for  intermarriage,  we  must  not  forget  j 
that  diversity  of  religious  belief  is  everywhere  a  great  J 
stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  marriage.  The  religious  j 
character  of  marriage  in  many  countries  makes  a  mixed 
marriage  appear  a  sacrilege,  and  for  this  reason  it  is, 
without  exception,  discountenanced  by  the  clergy,  and 
can  only  be  accomplished  through  the  civil  law.  Then, 
again,  difference  of  religion  usually  implies  a  certain 
social  aloofness,  in  the  sense  that  people  usually 
a"SSociafe  with  their  co-religionists,  and  therefore 
usually  marry  in  their  circle.1  Thus  the  6,700  inhabi- 
tants of  the  island  of  Schokland  in  the  Zuyder  Zee, 
consisting  half  of  Protestants,  half  of  Catholics,  were 
found  to  marry  exclusively  within  their  religious  com- 
munities ;   the  200  Karaites  in  Galicia,  separated  from 

1  This  is  the  attitude  of  orthodox  Judaism  towards  intermarriage. 
Of  all  the  questions  which  Napoleon  put  to  the  Jewish  Sanhedrin 
summoned  by  him,  none  aroused  such  a  heated  debate  as  the  third  : 
"  May  a  Jewess  marry  with  a  Christian,  or  a  Jew  with  a  Christian 
girl  ?  "  The  French  reforming  Rabbis  were  in  favour  of  an  affir- 
mative, the  German  (Alsacian)  of  a  definitely  negative  answer.  The 
Sanhedrin  finally  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  only  marriage 
which  was  absolutely  forbidden  was  marriage  with  Canaanites  ; 
marriages  with  Christians  ought  probably  not  to  be  celebrated  by 
Jewish  priests,  but  otherwise  there  was  no  hindrance. 


i6o 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


the  main  body  of  their  co-religionists  and  living  apart, 
among  Jews  and  Christians,  nevertheless  never  inter- 
marry with  them.  Even  the  slight  religious  difference 
which  exists  between  the  Ashkenazi  and  Sephardi  Jews 
of  Amsterdam  was  sufficient  to  prevent  marriage 
between  the  two  until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  In  Palestine,  marriage  between  Sephardim 
and  Ashkenazim  is  still  quite  exceptional.  Here,  cer 
tainly,  there  is  the  additional  hindrance  of  difference 
of  language  and  culture.  Marriages  between  Protes- 
tants and  Catholics  in  West  and  South  Germany  were 
formerly  very  rare,  and  it  is  only  during  the  last 
decades — since  civil  marriages  have  been  introduced — 
that  such  unions  have  become  numerous,  and  the 
importance  of  religion  and  the  Church  in  the  life  of  the 
individual  has  decreased.  The  following  table  shows 
the  percentage  of  marriages  out  of  the  faith  among 
Protestants  and  Catholics  : 


Percent,  of 

Per  cent,  of 

In 

Year. 

Protestant. 

Roman 
Catholics. 

Protestants 

in  Total 
Population. 

Catholics 

in  Total 

Population. 

Prussia,    -          -          - 

I907 

7.IO 

13.61 

62.59 

35-8o 

Bavaria,  - 

I907 

16.24 

6.66 

28.28 

70.70 

Hungary, 

I907 

21-33 

7.24 

6.69 

51-49 

Berlin, 

I906 

8-93 

62.37 

83.09 

10.98 

Frankfort-on-Main,    - 

I907 

28.29 

44.16 

60.45 

31-59 

Vienna,    - 

1905 

35-26 

1.42 

2.88 

87.28 

The  percentage  of  mixed  marriages  is  here  higher 
where  the  Catholics  or  Protestants  are  few  in  number 
among  the  general  population.  In  other  words, 
adherents  of  a  religious  minority  are  more  liable  to 
contract  mixed  marriages  when  the  choice  is  limited 
among  their  own  co-religionists.  In  Berlin  and  Frank- 
fort-on-M.,  where  Catholics  are  only  10.98  per  cent. 


INTERMARRIAGE 


161 


of  the  city  population  (against  31.59  per  cent,  of  the 
population  of  the  whole  country),  62.37  Per  cent- 
intermarry  ;  that  is,  intermarriage  has  almost  become 
the  rule. 

Jews  intermarry  most  frequently  in  countries  where  | 
they  have  been  settled  for  several  generations,  and  I 
have  achieved  prosperity,  but  where  their  numbers 
are  so  small  that  their  appearance  in  high  Christian 
circles  is  not  resented,  and  gives  rise  to  no  Anti- 
Semitism.  Such  countries  are  Denmark,  Italy  and 
Australia. 

Eighty-one  per  cent,  of  the  Jews  of  Denmark  live  in 
Copenhagen  :  in  this  town  395  Jewish  marriages  and 
272  mixed  marriages  were  contracted  between  the 
years  1880  and  1905  among  the  Jews,  i.e.  68.9  mixed 
marriages  to  every  100  Jewish  marriages.  Mixed 
marriages  are  on  the  increase,  Jewish  marriages  on  the 
decrease.     Of  mixed  marriages  there  were  contracted  : 

In  1880-1889     99  =  50.8  per  cent,  of  161  purely  Jewish  marriages. 
,,  1890-1895  101=68.7        „  „    147 

,,  1900-1905     81=82.9        ,,  ,,    87 

By  the  census  of  1906  it  was  shown  that  there  were 
326  Jewish  couples  and  159  mixed  (Jewish  and  Chris- 
tian) in  Copenhagen. 

The  census  of  1901  in  Australia  disclosed  the  follow- 
ing figures  : 


State. 

Jewish 

Marriages. 

Mixed  Marriages. 

Jewish 
Husband. 

Jewish  Wife. 

Together. 

West  Australia, 
New  South  Wales,  - 

157 
781 

39 
252 

23 
IO8 

62 
360 

l62 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


so  that  mixed  marriages  in  West  Australia  constitute 
34.4  per  cent.,  in  New  South  Wales  46  per  cent,  of 
Jewish  marriages. 

We  have  no  recent  data  for  Italy,  but  it  is  generally 
acknowledged  that  intermarriage  goes  on  there  to  a 
great  extent ;  in  1881  there  were  already  34.1  per  cent, 
mixed  marriages.  In  Trieste,  which  belongs  politically 
to  Austria,  but  culturally  to  Italy,  the  following 
marriages  were  contracted  : 


Purely 

Jewish 

Marriages. 

Marriages  between  Jews 
and  Freethinkers. 

Year. 

In  actual 

Numbers. 

Per  100 
Pure  Jewish 
Marriages. 

1877-1890,          ..-- 

189I-1895, 

1896-1899, 

1900-1903,          - 

138 
122 

137 
I06 

46 

47 
57 
65 

33-3 
38.5 
41.6 
61.4 

In  England  and  France,  intermarriage  was  common 
until  10  or  20  years  ago.  The  Jews  were  then  few  in 
numbers,  and  were  among  the  wealthiest  of  the  inhabi- 
tants. Their  numbers  have  lately  increased  very 
largely,  owing  to  the  immigration  from  Eastern  Europe  : 
among  these  immigrants  intermarriage  with  Gentiles 
takes  place  very  seldom  ;  it  is  confined  to  the  settled 
upper  classes  of  Jews.  We  have  unfortunately  no 
actual  figures. 

In  America,  conditions  are  similar  to  those  in 
England.  Those  Jews  who  have  long  been  settled  in 
the  country  and  belong  to  the  wealthier  class,  tend 
to  intermarry  with  Christians,  more  especially  in  the 
rather  sparsely  populated  districts  of  the  Southern 
States  and  South  America.     The  great  mass  of  Jews, 


INTERMARRIAGE 


163 


however,  who  have  immigrated  since  188 1,  and  con- 
centrated themselves  in  the  Northern  States,  do  not  so 
intermarry  on  a  large  scale.  A  census  taken  in  1904 
for  clerical  purposes  showed  that  there  were  85  mixed 
marriages  to  8,627  Jewish  marriages  in  New  York,  or 
less  than  1  per  cent. 

We  have  accurate  figures  of  mixed  marriages  for 
Germany  since  1901,  for  Prussia  and  Bavaria  since 
1875-76  ;  and  separate  statistics  for  all  the  large  towns. 
Here  we  see  that  mixed  marriages  are  everywhere  on 
the  increase. 


ja 

Mixed 

Marriages. 

Mrd 

4)    (A 

In  every  too  Purely 

<U  b0 

Jewish  Marriages  there 
married  out  of  Faith. 

Country. 

Between 

«Pm 

28 

is 

£ig 

3 
0 

h 

Men. 

Women. 

Average 
Total. 

Germany, 

I90I-1904 

3909 

362 

313 

675 

17-3 

8.48 

7.4I 

7-95 

I905-I908 

3968 

477 

406 

883 

22.2 

IO.69 

9.24 

9-97 

Prussia, 

1875-1884 

2406 

116 

126 

242 

10. 1 

4.60 

4.98 

4-79 

1885-1894 

2426 

155 

147 

302 

12.4 

6.OI 

5.71 

5-86 

1895-1899 

2555 

231 

202 

433 

16.9 

8.29 

7-33 

7.8i 

19OO-1904 

2568 

263 

232 

495 

19.3 

9.29 

8.29 

8.80 

1905-1908 

2674 

358 

316 

674 

25.2 

II. 8l 

10.57 

11. 19 

Bavaria, 

1876-1884 

359 

7 

6 

13 

3-6 

I.9I 

1-63 

1.78 

1885-1894 

360 

10 

9 

19 

5-3 

2.7O 

2.44 

2.57 

1895-1899 

379 

20 

12 

32 

8.4 

5.OI 

307 

4°5 

1900-1904 

425 

21 

17 

38 

8.9 

4.7I 

3-85 

4.29 

1905-1908 

4°5 

20 

19 

39 

9.6 

4.7I 

4.4S 

4-59 

Berlin,  - 

1901-1904 

615 

134 

84 

218 

35-4 

I7.89 

12.02 

15.06 

1905-1906 

626 

158 

116 

274 

43-8 

20.I5 

I5-63 

17.96 

Hamburg, 

I903-1905 

105 

26 

26 

52 

49-5 

I9.85 

19.85 

19.85 

Frankfort-on- 

Main, 

1905-1909 

154 

19 

19 

38 

24.7 

IO.98 

10.98 

10.98 

Breslau, 

I905-I906 

138 

12 

11 

23 

16.7 

8.00 

7.38 

7.69 

Munich, 

1906-1908 

44 

7 

9 

16 

36.4 

13-73 

16.98 

15.38 

Charlotten- 

burg, 

1895-I905 

59 

9 

5 

14 

23-7 

13-24 

7.81 

10.61 

The    percentage    of    mixed    marriages    to    Jewish 
ones  was  on  the  average  22.2  in  Germany  between 


164  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

the  years  1904  and  1908.  Bavaria,  which  is  the  leading 
state  of  all  Catholic  South  Germany,  has  only  9.6  per 
cent.,  thus  coming  below  the  general  average ;  Prussia 
(i.e.  Protestant  Northern  and  Central  Germany)  has  25.2 
per  cent.,  something  above  it.  Berlin  and  Hamburg 
have  no  less  than  43.8  and  49.5  mixed  marriages, 
respectively,  to  100  Jewish  marriages.  For  the  whole 
of  Germany  1904-1908,  the  average  of  Jews  or  Jewesses 
marrying  out  of  the  faith  was  9.97  per  cent.  ;  in  Berlin 
it  was  17.96  per  cent.  ;   in  Hamburg  19.95  per  cent. 

As  a  general  rule  intermarriage  of  Jewish  men  with 
Christian  women  is  far  more  common  than  that  of  Chris- 
tian men  with  Jewish  women.  This  is  specially  the  case 
in  Berlin,  Charlottenburg  and  Hamburg.  During  the 
period  1875-1884  this  was  not  so,  probably  because  at 
that  time  it  was  the  fashion  for  poor  Christians  of 
noble  families  to  marry  rich  Jewesses.  With  the 
•  advent  of  anti-Semitism  (about  1880)  marriage  with 
a  Jew  or  Jewess  came  to  be  looked  upon  as  something 
of  a  mesalliance  ;  especially  so  in  the  case  of  the 
Jewish  wife,  as,  under  present  conditions  in  Germany, 
wives  are  easier  to  find  than  husbands.  Thus,  in  cases 
of  intermarriage,  a  Jewish  man  often  seems  to  be 
marrying  below  his  rank.  The  following  table  differ- 
entiates the  sects  to  which  the  Christians  who  inter- 
marry belong.  It  shows  that  by  far  the  greater 
part  are  Protestant. 

The  percentage  of  Protestants  in  Germany  in  1905 
was  62.1  per  cent,  of  the  general  population,  so  that 
their  percentage  of  mixed  marriages  is  out  of  propor- 
tion to  their  numbers.  The  contrary  is  seen  with  the 
Catholics,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Jews  are  as  numerous 
in  the  Catholic  as  in  the  Protestant  districts.  The 
reasons  for  this  are  firstly  that  the  large  cities,  with  their 


INTERMARRIAGE 


165 


disproportionate  percentage  of  mixed  marriages,  are 
mostly  situated  in  Protestant  districts,  and  secondly 
that  Catholicism  has  far  more  hold  on  the  people,  and 
hinders  them  from  intermarrying. 


H 

USBAND 

Jewish. 

Wife,  J 

EWISH. 

Man 

and 

Wife 

Jewish. 

Wl 

FE, 

Husband, 

Year. 

Protes- 
tant. 

Catho- 
lic. 

Other 
Christ. 
Sects. 

Other 
Relig- 
ions. 

Protes- 
tant. 

Catho- 
lic. 

Other 
Christ. 
Sects. 

Other 
Relig- 
ions. 

I90I 

3,878 

258 

67 

13 

4 

222 

76 

16 

2 

I902 

3,925 

244 

75 

8 

4 

217 

03 

II 

4 

I903 

3,831 

279 

68 

11 

5 

2l8 

70 

13 

4 

1904 

4,OOI 

316 

74 

16 

6 

256 

74 

5 

1 

I905 

3,905 

36l 

74 

14 

9 

255 

85 

16 

4 

1906 

4,080 

330 

87 

18 

5 

297 

91 

22 

5 

1907 

4,°52 

389 

84 

21 

1 

305 

90 

19 

5 
6 

1908 

3,907 

382 

92 

35 

7 

3IO 

88 

19 

Aver.  1901-8 

3,947 

320 

78 

17 

5 

260 

80 

15 

4 

In  intermarriage  with  Jewish  husband,  76.19  %  of  all  casesare  Protestant. 

wife,  72.42  % 

In  total  average  of  intermarriages,        74.45% 

Statistics  for  Prussia,  Saxony,  Hamburg  and  Bremen 
give  the  actual  numbers  of  mixed  couples.  Thus  in 
Prussia  there  were  the  following  number : 


In  the  Year. 

With 
Jewish  Husband. 

With 
Jewish  Wife. 

Total. 

1885 
189O 

1895 
I900 
I905 

I.IOO 
1,505 

i»757 
2,242 

2,931 

I,OII 
1,258 
1,530 
I,8lO 
2,186 

2,111 
2,763 
3,287 
4,052 
5,H7 

In  Saxony  (1905)  to  2,174  Jewish  there  were  292 
mixed  marriages  (213  with  Jewish  husbands,  79  with 
Jewish  wife)  =134  per  cent,  mixed  marriages.  In 
Hamburg  (1900)  to  3,022  Jewish  there  were  158  mixed 


i66 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


marriages  with  Jewish  wife  and  273  with  Jewish  husband: 
thus  altogether  14.3  per  cent,  of  mixed  marriages. 

In  Austria,  as  we  have  already  mentioned,  marriage 
between  Christian  and  Jew  is  forbidden,  but  inter- 
marriage with  persons  of  "no  religious  confession  "  is 
allowed.  Thus,  if  a  couple  wish  to  marry,  one  of  them 
Christian,  the  other  Jewish,  the  only  courses  they  can 
take  are  for  one  of  them  either  to  adopt  the  faith  of  the 
other,  or  to  declare  him  or  herself  of  no  religious  con- 
fession. If  the  first  alternative  is  adopted  the  marriage 
is  not  counted  as  "  mixed  "  statistically ;  and  in  the 
second  case  the  marriage  is  registered  as  the  marriage 
of  a  Jew  or  Christian  (as  the  case  may  be)  with  a  person 
of  no  confession.  It  is  only  the  former  cases  (i.e. 
marriages  between  Jews  and  persons  of  no  confession) 
which  can  be  reckoned  as  mixed  marriages  of  Jew  and 
Christian  with  any  certainty ; x  in  cases  where  a  Christian 
marries  in  this  way,  the  non-confessional  party  is  indeed 
very  often,  but  by  no  means  always,  Jewish  by  birth. 
We  must  bear  these  facts  in  mind  when  we  study  the 
figures  for  mixed  marriages  in  Austria,  set  out  below. 

In  Austria  there  were  contracted  on  an  average 
yearly  : 


Year. 

Purely  Jewish 
Marriages. 

Marriages  hetween  Jews  and  Persons 
of  no  Religious  Confession. 

In  actual  Figures. 

Per  100  purely 
Jewish  Marriages. 

1881-1884 
1885-1894 
1895-1899 
I900-I904 
I905-I906 

3,287 
4,576 
5,78l 
7,445 
7,8l6 

52 

6l 

I22f 

I48 

ICO 

1.58 

1-33 

2. II 

1.99 
2.05 

1  Even  these  mixed  marriages  include  many  cases  of  marriage 
between  Jews  and  baptised  or  non-confessing  Jews,  though  these 


INTERMARRIAGE 


167 


The  remarkable  increase  in  Jewish  marriages  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  until  a  short  time  ago  marriages  in 
Austria  and  in  Galicia  in  particular  were  celebrated 
according  to  Jewish  ritual  only,  and  were  not  con- 
sidered valid  in  the  eye  of  the  law.  In  recent  times 
even  the  Galician  Jews  are  tending  more  and  more  to 
be  married  civilly,  and  the  result  is  seen  in  the  increase 
of  Jewish  marriages  in  the  statistics.  The  fact  that 
while  mixed  marriages  have  trebled  themselves  in 
actual  numbers,  their  percentage  has  risen  only  from 
1.58  to  2.05  is  attributable  to  the  increase  in  the  number 
of  Jewish  marriages  registered,  the  cause  of  which  we 
have  just  explained.  The  greatest  number  of  mixed 
marriages  in  Austria  take  place  in  Vienna,  where  the 
yearly  average  was  : 


Year. 

Jewish  Marriages. 

Marriages  between  Jews  and  Persons 
of  no  Religious  Confession. 

Actual  Figures. 

Per  100  purely 
Jewish  Marriages. 

1881-1884 
1885-1894 
1895-1899 
I90O-I903 
I904-I907 

390 

538 
839 
864 
963 

42 
48 
76 
92 
107 

IO.8 

8.9 

9.1 

IO.7 

II. I 

Besides  Vienna,  Trieste  and  Bohemia  (Prague)  witness 
a  great  deal  of  intermarriage.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  almost  unknown  in  Galicia  and  Bukovina  :  from 
1900-1903  there  were  only  six  intermarriages  in  the 
whole  of  Galicia,  and  not  a  single  one  in  Bukovina. 

clearly  cannot  be  called  mixed  marriages.  On  the  other  hand 
when  both  contracting  parties  are  converted  or  non-confessing  Jews 
before  marriage  these  cases  are  not  registered  as  mixed  marriages. 


i68 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


In  Hungary  the  following  number  are  contracted  on 
an  average  yearly  : 


Jewish 
Marriages. 

Mixed  Marriages. 

Per  100 

purely 

Jewish 

Marriages. 

Year. 

Jewish 

Husband. 

Jewish 
Wife. 

Total. 

1895-1899,       - 
I90O-I904, 
I905-I906,       - 
I907-I908,       - 

6,694 

6,754 
6,889 

7,239 

184 
224 
268 
311 

188 
218 
237 
345 

372 
442 

505 
656 

5-56 
6-53 

7-33 
9.06 

We  see  that  in  the  relatively  short  time  since  the 
law  forbidding  intermarriage  was  repealed  (1895) 
intermarriage  has  been  on  the  increase.  The  following 
percentage  of  Jews  married  out  of  the  faith  : 


Of  every  100  Married  Jewish 

Year. 

Men. 

Women. 

Average  of 

Men  and  Women 

together. 

1895-1899,      - 
1900-1904,      - 
I905-1906,      - 
I907-I908,      - 

2.68 
3.21 

3-74 
4.12 

2-73 

313 
332 

4-55 

2.70 
3.16 

3-54 
4-33 

Capital  cities  offer  the  widest  field  for  intermarriage  in 
every  country  :  thus,  in  Hungary,  Budapest  gives  the 
following  figures  : 


Jewish 
Marriages. 

Mixed  Marriages. 

Per  100 

purely 

Jewish 

Marriages. 

Year. 

Jewish 
Husband. 

Jewish 
Wife. 

Total. 

1896-1900,    - 
I90I-1904,    - 

1,195 
1,275 

86 
104 

93 
I07 

179 
211 

I5.O 

16.5 

INTERMARRIAGE  169 

Percentage  of  Jews  marrying  out  of  the  faith  : 


Year. 

Of  every  100  Married  Jewish 

Men. 

Women. 

Average  of 

Men  and  Women 

together. 

1896-1900,      - 
1901-1904,      - 

6.7I 

7-54 

7.22 
7-74 

6.97 
7.64 

In  Holland  we  have  statistics  for  Amsterdam  only, 
but,  as  more  than  half  the  Dutch  Jews  live  in  Amster- 
dam, we  can  get  a  general  idea  of  conditions  therefrom. 
For  the  years  1899-1908  the  average  yearly  number  of 
Jewish  marriages  contracted  was  381,  of  mixed  mar- 
riages, 43,  i.e.  1 1. 3  per  cent,  of  Jewish  marriages. 

In  Roumania  intermarriage  does  not  assume  large 
proportions.  For  the  years  1896-1899,  there  were  on 
an  average  17  mixed  to  1,503  Jewish  marriages,  thus 
1.1  per  cent,  of  Jewish  marriages.  In  Roumania  also 
most  of  the  intermarriage  goes  on  in  Bukarest : 


Jewish 
Mar- 
riages. 

Mixed  Marriages. 

Per  100 

purely 

Jewish 

Marriages. 

Year. 

Jewish 
Husband. 

Jewish  Wife. 

Total. 

1898-1899, 
1904-1905, 

303 
242 

unknown 
2 

unknown 
7 

14 
9 

4.6 

3-7 

In  reviewing  all  these  facts  we  find  that  we  can 
divide  countries  into  four  distinct  classes,  according  to 
the  amount  of  intermarriage  which  goes  on  within 
them. 

In  the  first  class  we  include  those  countries  where 
mixed  marriages  are  less  than  2  per  cent.  :  Galicia, 


170  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

Bukovina,  Roumania  and  the  Jewish  immigrant  areas 
of  England,  France  and  the  United  States. 

In  the  second  class  (intermarriages  from  2  to  10  per 
cent.)  we  place  Catholic  Germany,  Hungary  (excluding 
Budapest)  and  Bohemia. 

To  the  third  class  belong  Protestant  Germany,  Hol- 
land, Austria  (Vienna  and  Budapest).  Here  inter- 
marriage goes  on  to  the  extent  of  from  10  to  30  per 
cent,  of  Jewish  marriages,  and  shows  signs  of  rapid 
increase.  It  does  not  as  yet  threaten  to  disrupt  the 
Jewish  population,  though  it  seriously  reduces  its 
numbers. 

Finally,  in  the  fourth  class  come  Denmark,  Australia 
and  Italy.  Here  one-third  of  Jewish  marriages  are 
mixed  marriages,  and  constitute  a  serious  menace  to 
the  continued  existence  of  the  already  scanty  Jewish 
population  in  these  countries,  as  the  children  of  the 
I  mixed  marriages  are  practically  all  brought  up  in  the 
Christian  faith.  The  same  thing  applies  to  the  Jewish 
communities  which  have  been  long  established  in 
England,  France  and  the  United  States  of  America. 
A  few  large  German  towns  (Berlin,  Hamburg)  should 
be  included  also  in  this  fourth  class. 

The  likeness  these  four  classes  present  to  the  four 
sections  of  Jewry,  described  in  our  first  chapter,  is 
obvious.  Nor  is  this  surprising,  considering  that  the 
same  cause  is  at  the  root  of  both — namely,  the  partici- 
pation of  Jews  in  modern  culture  and  capitalistic 
economic  life.  The  more  Jews  and  Christians  mix 
I  with  one  another  in  economic  and  social  life,  the 
\  more  likely  is  it  that  they  will  intermarry  with  one 
another. 

Intermarriage  has  been  denounced  by  the  enemies 
of  Jews  almost  as  much  as  by  lovers  of  Judaism  ; 


INTERMARRIAGE  171 

especially  by  Diihring  in  his  book  The  Jewish  Question 
as  a  question  of  Racial  Degeneration  (Die  Judenfrage 
als  Frage  der  Rassenschiidlichkeit).  His  chief  argument 
is  that  Jewish  blood  destroys  the  pure  "  Aryan  "  race, 
and  that  the  physiological  antipathy  is  such  that 
marriage  between  the  two  races  is  unnatural.  But  the 
strongest  argument  against  this  statement  is  the  fact 
of  the  spread  of  intermarriage.  The  parties  who  con- 
tract the  marriage  are  surely  the  best  judges  as  to 
whether  there  exists  any  physical  antipathy  !  What- 
ever antipathy  to  the  Jewish  type  may  exist  is,  like 
that  of  the  orthodox  Jew  of  East  Europe  to  the  Chris- 
tian, more  a  social  than  a  physiological  and  instinctive 
aversion.  The  one  really  important  race  distinction, 
skin-colour,  a  distinction  which  often  calls  up  a  deep- 
seated  instinctive  antipathy,  does  not  enter  into  the 
question  between  Jews  and  Europeans. 

On  the  other  hand,  intermarriage  is  welcomed  by 
many    Christians.     Ed.    v.    Hartmann,    for   example, 
considers  "  the  providential  admixture  of  Jewish  blood 
an  unmixed  blessing  for  the  Teuton  race/'  and  looks 
forward   eagerly   to   "a   complete   assimilation,"    the  . 
accomplishment  of  which  in  time  he  "  does  not  doubt."  *■[ 
The  increasing  spread  of  intermarriage  is  indeed  not 
likely  to  be  hindered  by  any  race  theories,  so  long  as' 
the  social  differences  between  Christians  and  Jews  are  *. 
wiped  out,  and  the  path  to  intermarriage  made  smooth,  j 

B.  The  children  of  mixed  marriages. 

The  number  of  children  born  of  mixed  marriages 
has  risen  of  late  years  in  the  same  degree  as  inter- 
marriage has  increased. 

1  Das  Judentum  in  Gegenwart  und  Zukunft  (Berlin,  1885). 


172 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


AVERAGE   ANNUAL    NUMBER    OF   JEWISH    BIRTHS 
IN    PRUSSIA    (INCLUDING    STILL-BORN    CHILDREN). 


Of  M 

xed  Marriages. 

To  every  100 
Births  of  Purely 

Of  purely 

Jewish  Marri- 
ages there  were 

Year. 

Jewish 

With 

With 

Marriages. 

Jewish 

Jewish 

Total. 

born  of  Mixed 

Husband. 

Wife. 

Marriages. 

1875-1879, 

11,113 

164 

223 

387 

3-48 

1880-1884, 

IO,288 

207 

265 

472 

4-59 

1885-1889, 

9,083 

26l 

265 

526 

5-79 

1890-1894, 

8,354 

28l 

294 

575 

6.88 

1895-1899, 

7,619 

304 

318 

622 

8.16 

1900-1904, 

7,097 

348 

354 

702 

9.89 

I905-I906, 

6,900 

386 

401 

787 

11. 41 

I907-I908, 

6,627 

392 

405 

797 

12.03 

In  Prussia,  as  we  see  from  the  table,  the  average  of  387 
in  the  3^ears  1875-79  rose  to  an  average  of  797  in  1907-08, 
while  simultaneously  the  number  of  children  born  of 
Jewish  marriages  fell  from  11,113  t°  6,627.  The  result 
is  that  the  percentage  of  children  of  mixed  marriages 
to  that  of  the  children  of  Jewish  marriages  rose  from 
3.48  per  cent,  in  1875-79  to  12.03  per  cent,  in  1907-08. 

In  Bavaria  there  were  born  on  an  average  : 

AVERAGE   ANNUAL   NUMBER   OF   JEWISH    BIRTHS 
IN    BAVARIA. 


Of  purely 
Jewish 

Marriages. 

Of  Mixed  Marriages. 

To  every  ioo 
Births  of  Purely 

Jewish  Marri- 
ages there  were 

born  of  Mixed 
Marriages. 

Year. 

Jewish 
Husband. 

Jewish 
Wife. 

Total. 

1876-1879, 
1880-1884, 
1885-1889, 
1890-1894, 
1895-1899, 
I9OO-I904, 
I905-I906, 
I907-I908, 

1,677 

1,544 

1,299 

1,124 

988 

937 
911 

897 

3 
9 
17 
21 
26 
32 
31 
35 

II 
12 

15 
16 
20 
26 
21 
25 

14 
21 

32 

37 
46 

58 
52 
60 

O.83 
1.30 
2.46 

3-29 
4.66 
6.19 

5-7i 
6.69 

INTERMARRIAGE 


173 


In  Bavaria  the  increase  is  less  than  in  Prussia. 
Nevertheless,  the  table  shows  that  in  Bavaria  also 
children  of  mixed  marriages  were  6.69  per  cent,  of 
the  children  of  Jewish  marriages,  while  their  percentage 
in  1876-79  was  only  0.83  per  cent. 

In  Hungary  there  were  born  on  an  average  : 


Of  purely- 
Jewish 
Marriages. 

Of  Mixed  Marriages. 

Per  100  Biiths 
of  Purely  Jewish 

Marriages 

there  were  born 

of  Mixed 

Marriages. 

Year. 

Jewish 
Husband. 

Jewish 
Wife. 

Total. 

1897-1901, 
I903-I904, 
I906, 

26,212 
25,020 
24,067 

Il6 

174 
212 

137 
202 

239 

253 
376 
451 

O.97 
I.50 

I.87 

Here  again  we  have  a  considerable  increase. 

In  Holland  2,395  children  were  born  of  Jewish 
marriages,  74  of  mixed  marriages  with  a  Jewish  father, 
and  41  of  mixed  marriages  with  a  Jewish  mother. 
The  children  of  mixed  marriages  are  therefore  4.8  per 
cent,  of  the  children  of  Jewish  marriages.     • 

In  Copenhagen  by  the  census  of  1906  there  were 
only  783  children  born  of  the  376  Jewish  marriages,  as 
against  370  born  of  the  159  mixed  marriages,  so  that 
the  issue  of  mixed  marriages  was  almost  half  as  large 
(to  be  exact  47.2  per  cent.)  as  that  of  the  Jewish 
marriages. 

Other  countries  have  unfortunately  no  similar  data 
as  to  the  religion  of  the  parents.  Still,  the  foregoing 
figures  will  suffice  to  show  that  the  children  of  inter- 
marriage are  an  ever-growing  factor  of  the  Jewish 
population,  and  one  which  will  grow  larger  as  mixed 
marriages  increase  in  number. 

It  has  been  urged  against  mixed  marriages  between 


174  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

two  persons  of  different  race,  that  they  are  less  fecund 
than  other  marriages.  Statistics  to  substantiate  this 
are,  however,  not  available.  It  could  only  be  proved 
with  any  certainty  if  one  were  to  investigate  the  issue 
of  pure  and  mixed  marriages,  and  see  how  many 
children  had  been  born  of  each  within  a  certain  time 
after  marriage  :  and  no  such  investigation  has  been 
made.  Nevertheless,  it  is  probable  that  childlessness 
is  more  common  in  intermarriage  than  in  pure  mar- 
riages. A  census  in  Prussia  in  1905  showed  that  no 
fewer  than  1,940  out  of  5,117  mixed  marriages,  i.e. 
37.91  per  cent.,  were  sterile.  In  Breslau  the  following 
number  in  1905  had  no  issue  : 

Of  mixed  marriages  between : 

Protestant  Husbands  and  Catholic      Wives,  24.5  per  cent. 
Catholic  ,,  ,,     Protestant       ,,       24.3    ,, 


Jewish 
Jewish 
Protestant 
Catholic 


Protestant  „  47.7 

Catholic  ,,  37.9 

Jewish  ,,  47.9 

Jewish  ,,  46.7 


The  percentage  of  childless  marriages  was  thus 
higher  in  mixed  marriages  of  Christian  and  Jew  than 
Catholic  and  Protestant. 

The  cause  of  the  more  frequent  sterility  might  easily 
be  proved  by  natural  science.  Just  as  certain  differing 
zoological  species  cannot  be  crossed,  so  it  is  possible 
that  to  an  extent  difference  of  race  is  responsible  for 
sterility. 

C.  Losses  to  Judaism  caused  by  intermarriage. 

The  spread  of  intermarriage  constitutes  a  two-fold 
danger  to  Judaism  ;  in  the  first  place,  through  the 
quantitive  loss  of  the  vastly  preponderating  number 
of  children  born  of  mixed  marriages  who  are  brought 


INTERMARRIAGE 


175 


up  outside  the  community  ;  in  the  second  place,  the 
qualitative  loss  of  race  purity  by  admixture  of  non- 
Jewish  blood. 

Prussian  statistics  of  the  "  Religion  of  children 
of  mixed  marriages,  living  with  their  parents  "  give 
us  ample  material  for  demonstrating  the  amount  of 
quantitive  loss.  From  the  census  of  1905  we  find  that 
the  number  of  such  children  was  : 


Brought  up  as 

Children  of 
Mixed  Marriages  with 

Percentage 
in  Mixed  Marriages  with 

Jewish 
Husband. 

Jewish 
Wife. 

Total. 

Jewish 
Husband. 

Jewish 
Wife. 

Average 
Total. 

Jewish, 
Christian,  - 
Freethinking,     - 

972 

2,897 
80 

619 

2,332 
Il6 

1,591 

5.229 

196 

24.61 

73-36 

2.03 

20.I8 
76.04 

3.78 

22.67 

74-53 
2.80 

Total, 

3.949 

3.067 

7,Ol6 

IOO.OO 

IOO.OO 

100.00 

Here  we  see  that  of  all  the  children  of  mixed  mar- 
riages living  in  the  houses  of  their  parents  only  22.67 
per  cent,  remained  Jewish,  whereas  theoretically  one 
would  expect  one-half  to  belong  to  the  Jewish  religion. 

A  comparison  with  former  census  returns  shows  how 

the  percentage  of  children  of  mixed  marriages  who 

remain  Jewish  has  steadily  decreased  since  1890.     It 

was :  0  •       00 

24.78  per  cent,  m  1885 

25.48        „  „  1890 

2447        »  »  i895 

24.21        ,,  ,,  1900 

22.67        „  „  1905 

The  decrease  between  the  years  1900  and  1905  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  percentage  of  children  of  mixed 


176  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

marriages  (Jewish  father)  remaining  Jewish  was 
27.67  per  cent,  in  1900,  24.61  per  cent,  in  1905  ;  in 
mixed  marriages  with  a  Jewish  mother  the  percentage 
rose  slightly  from  20.08  per  cent,  in  1900  to  20.18  per 
cent,  in  1905.  Of  the  sons  of  mixed  marriages  22.14 
per  cent,  remained  Jewish  ;  of  the  daughters  23.21  per 
cent.  We  may  perhaps  assume  from  this  that  the 
tendency  to  bring  up  the  children  in  the  Christian 
religion  is  stronger  in  the  case  of  boys  than  in  that  of 
girls. 

If  we  distinguish  the  various  religions  of  the  non- 
Jewish  side  of  mixed  marriages,  we  find  that 

in  marriages  with  a  Protestant     Husband  or  Wife,  20.39  per  cent. 
Catholic  ,,  „  24.03 

Freethinking 
or  Dissenting    „  „  48.04        „ 

of  the  children  remain  Jewish. 

Thus  intermarriage  with  Protestants  is  the  most 
derogatory  to  Judaism.  Protestantism  being  the 
ruling  religion,  it  naturally  exerts  the  greatest  power 
of  attraction.  In  mixed  marriages  with  Freethinkers 
or  Dissenters  the  average  of  children  who  remain 
Jewish  is  48.04  per  cent.,  or  almost  one-half,  and  in 
mixed  marriages  between  a  Freethinking  or  Dissent- 
ing wife  and  Jewish  husband,  the  percentage  of 
children  remaining  Jewish  is  59.60  per  cent.,  or  more 
than  half.  But  here  we  must  take  into  consideration 
the  Prussian  law  of  the  14th  May,  1873,  by  which 
the  child  of  a  Christian  or  Jewish  father  was  not 
allowed  to  be  registered  as  a  dissenter  until  after  his 
fourteenth  year,  so  that  many  who  would  otherwise 
have  been  dissenters,  were  still  nominally  attached 
to  the  Jewish  community. 

The  above  table  does  not  convey  an  exact  idea  of 


INTERMARRIAGE 


177 


the  losses  Judaism  suffers  through  intermarriage.  The 
numbers  have  reference  only  to  the  children  who  are 
still  living  in  their  parents'  households,  i.e.  chiefly 
juveniles.  But  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that 
many  children  of  such  marriages  who,  by  the  will  of 
their  parents,  have  been  brought  up  as  Jews,  will  revert 
to  Christianity  as  soon  as  they  are  grown  up.  The 
fact  that  they  have  a  number  of  Christian  relatives, 
and  are  only  half-Jewish  by  blood,  facilitates  their  » 
change  of  religion.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  of 
the  22.67  per  cent,  of  children  of  mixed  marriages,  ./ 
who  by  their  parents'  wish  have  remained  Jewish,  at  \ 
least  one-half  fall  away  from  Judaism  as  they  grow  I 
up ;  thus  only  about  10  per  cent,  remain  definitely  1 
Jews  and  marry  in  the  Jewish  community. 

In  Saxony,  by  the  census  of  1905,  the  following 
number  of  children  of  mixed  marriages  remained 
Jewish  : 


In  Mixed  Marriages  With 

Total  Number 
of  Children. 

Remaining 
Jewish. 

Percentage. 

Jewish  husband,    - 
Jewish  wife,  - 

117 

53 

18 

7 

15  4 
13.2 

Of  these,  again,  10  per  cent,  at  most  remain  Jews. 

In  Hungary  those  about  to  contract  a  mixed  mar- 
riage can  make  an  agreement  as  to  the  religion  they 
wish  their  children  to  have.  In  the  absence  of  such 
an  agreement,  the  sons  follow  the  religion  of  the  father, 
the  daughters  that  of  the  mother.  In  the  4,822  mixed 
marriages  contracted  between  1896  and  1906,  agreements 
were  made  in  1,181  cases  (24.49  Per  cent.),  but  were 
omitted  in  3,641  cases  (75.51  per  cent.).     Following  the 

M 


178  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

agreements  465  children  of  mixed  marriages  with 
Jewish  fathers  (i.e.  83.33  Per  cent.)  were  brought  up 
as  Christians,  93  (i.e.  16.67  Per  cent.)  as  Jews  ;  of  the 
children  of  mixed  marriages  with  Jewish  mothers  549 
(88.12  per  cent.)  became  Christians,  and  only  74  (11.88 
per  cent.)  remained  Jews — an  average  of  14.04  per 
cent,  remaining  Jewish. 

In  Denmark,  before  a  mixed  marriage  can  be  entered 
upon,  the  law  demands  a  statement  as  to  the  religion 
to  which  the  children  will  belong.  In  Copenhagen 
there  were  21  such  declarations  from  mixed  marriages 
between  Christians  and  Jews  (in  the  years  1893  and 
1903)  ;  in  13  cases  (62  per  cent.)  the  religion  of  the 
children  was  to  be  Christian,  in  7  cases  (33  per  cent.) 
Jewish.  In  one  case  the  boys  were  to  be  brought  up 
as  Jews,  the  girls  as  Christians. 

The  statistics  drawn  from  the  census  of  1906  are 
still  less  favourable  to  Jews.  By  these  there  were  370 
children  born  of  159  mixed  marriages,  and  of  these 
16.5  per  cent,  were  brought  up  as  Jews,  77.8  per  cent. 
as  Christians,  5.7  per  cent,  as  Dissenters. 

In  New  South  Wales  it  is  surprising  to  find  that  in 
mixed  marriages,  where  the  wife  is  Jewish,  conditions 
are  more  favourable  to  Judaism  than  where  the  hus- 
band is  a  Jew,  36.36  per  cent,  of  the  children  remaining 
Jewish  in  the  former  case,  and  only  26.99  per  cent,  in 
the  latter.  It  would  seem  from  this  that,  contrary 
to  the  practice  in  Europe,  the  mother  in  Australia  has 
more  control  than  the  father  over  the  education  and 
religion  of  the  child. 

Similar  statistics  are  not  forthcoming  from  other 
countries,  but  conditions  are  very  much  the  same 
everywhere.     In  France — as  De-la-Roi  remarks  1 — the 

1  Judentaufen  im  19.  Jahrhundert  (Berlin,  1899). 


INTERMARRIAGE  179 

number  of  children  of  mixed  marriages  brought  to  the 
font  exceeds  the  number  of  actual  converts. 

We  can  no  longer  consider  the  losses  entailed  by 
intermarriage  a  negligible  quantity  in  Judaism.  In 
Hungary  in  1907  the  462  children  of  mixed  marriages 
constituted  1.93  per  cent.,  in  Prussia  776  children,  11.67 
per  cent.,  and  in  Berlin  225  children,  15.15  per  cent.,  of 
the  children  of  Jewish  marriages.  When  we  remember 
the  declining  birth-rate  of  the  Jews,  we  realise  that  the 
losses  through  intermarriage  are  very  serious. 

The  qualitative  loss  to  the  Jewish  race  is  also  of 
some  importance.  Thus  in  Prussia  some  700  children 
of  half- Jewish  blood  are  added  to  the  Christian,  and 
some  100  to  the  Jewish  population  every  year  through 
mixed  marriages.  In  addition  to  which  we  must  add 
the  number  of  illegitimate  births,  Christian  as  well  as 
Jewish  (the  latter  amounting  to  about  300  yearly),  in 
which  the  father  of  the  child  of  a  Christian  mother 
may  have  been  a  Jew,  and  the  father  of  the  child  of  a 
Jewish  mother,  a  Christian.  This  infiltration  of  Jewish 
blood  has  as  yet  left  hardly  any  visible  traces  on  the 
racial  characteristics  of  the  Christian  population  ;  it 
is  only  in  the  large  towns,  with  teeming  populations 
in  which  mixed  marriages  and  conversions  are  common, 
that  a  certain  change  can  be  noticed  in  the  national 
type.  It  may  perhaps  not  be  too  bold  an  assumption 
to  submit  that  the  vivacity  and  proverbial  sharpness 
of  the  population  of  Berlin,  and  the  prevalence  of  the 
dark-haired  type,  are  both  attributable  to  a  dash  of 
Jewish  blood.  The  effect  of  intermarriage  on  the  Jews 
is  much  stronger  ;  although  in  point  of  numbers  the 
additions  through  mixed  marriages  are  far  smaller 
than  among  the  Christians ;  still  the  hundred  or 
so    children    that    mixed   marriages   bring   yearly    to 


180  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

Judaism,  are  about  1.5  per  cent,  of  the  children  of 
Jewish  marriages ;  while  the  700  that  fall  to  the 
Christians  are  only  0.06  per  cent,  of  the  children  of 
Christian  marriages.  Reckoning  that  about  half  the 
300  illegitimate  Jewish  children  have  Christian  fathers, 
the  percentage  of  children  who  are  received  into  the 
Jewish  community  of  half- Jewish  blood  is  3.7  per 
cent,  of  the  number  of  Jewish  births.  It  is  natural 
that  such  a  proportion  must,  in  course  of  timcJ  con- 
siderably modify  the  race-character  of  the  Tews. 


CHAPTER   XL 

BAPTISM. 

A.  Conversion  in  former  times. 

Baptism  in  its  results  is  akin  to  intermarriage. 
Intermarriage  thins  the  ranks  of  Judaism  by  absorbing 
a  large  part  of  the  offspring  into  Christianity  ;  baptism 
achieves  the  same  end  by  releasing  members  of  the 
Jewish  faith  from  the  Jewish  community  by  means  of 
a  lawful  act  performed  for  the  purpose,  with  the  result 
that  in  time  they  are  completely  swallowed  up  by 
Christian  nationalities. 

Conversion  from  Judaism  to  other  religions  is  no 
new  feature  in  Jewish  history  ;  it  occurred  frequently 
even  in  the  days  of  the  existence  of  a  Jewish  State, 
wherever  Jews  lived  scattered  among  other  nations  ; 
thus,  for  example,  in  the  year  40  a.d.  many  conversions 
from  Judaism  to  Paganism  followed  on  the  Jewish  per- 
secutions in  Alexandria.1  The  son  of  the  Arabarch 
Alexander  himself — the  leader  of  the  Jewish  com- 
munity in  Alexandria — was  one  of  the  apostates,  and, 
as  a  reward  for  abandoning  Jehovah  for  the  Roman 
gods,  had  many  honours  conferred  upon  him  by  Rome. 
This  is  but  a  typical  instance.  An  astounding  number 
of  Jewish  converts  to  other  creeds  have  achieved  high 
social  standing. 

1  Graetz,  History  of  the  Jews,  vol.  iii.  p.  344. 


182  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

Voluntary  or  enforced  conversion  from  Judaism  to 
Christianity  went  on  throughout  the  Middle  Ages.  A 
proof  of  the  extent  to  which  this  took  place  in  some 
countries  is  the  fact  that  in  Spain,  to  this  very  day- 
four  hundred  years  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from 
that  country  —the  Jewish  type  is  very  prevalent, 
particularly  among  the  upper  classes.1 

Compared  with  the  number  of  Jewish  converts  to 
other  religions,  that  of  converts  to  Judaism  is  very 
small.  In  the  first'  centuries  before  and  after  Christ, 
Judaism  was  indeed  a  great  attractive  force  with  the 
heathen,  and  there  was  a  very  considerable  number  of 
Jewish  proselytes,2  apart  from  the  Idumaeans,  who 
were  converted  to  Judaism  by  force  of  arms.  But 
this  spread  of  the  Jewish  faith  ceases  almost  entirely 
at  the  end  of  the  first  century  a.d.  Paul's  propaganda, 
and  the  growing  strength  of  Christianity  took  the  wind 
out  of  its .sajfe*  Christianity  conveyed  to  the  heathen 
tlfe^^iio%a  of  Judaism — monotheism— without  the 
burden  of  the  ceremonial,  and  the  national  pride  of 
the  born  Jew,3  and  from  that  time  onwards  the  Jewish 
mission  was  rejected  in  favour  of  Christianity.  The 
conversion  to  Judaism  of  some  Arab  tribes  in  Yemen 
(S.  Arabia)  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century, 
under  King  Jussuf,  exercised  no  lasting  effect,  as 
Jussuf's  kingdom  was  broken  up  530  a.d.,  and  all  that 
remained  of  Judaism  there  was  afterwards  engulfed  in 
Islam.  The  only  other  wholesale  conversion  to  Judaism 
took  place  in  the  eighth  century  a.d.,  when  the  King  of 
the  Chazars — a  people  living  on  the  banks  of  the  Lower 

lGf.  Joseph  Jacobs  "On  the  Racial  Characteristics  of  Modern 
Jews,"  in  the  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  vol.  xv.  p.  24. 
2Cf.  Josephus,  The  Wars  of  the  Jews,  vol.  ii.  18,  2  ;  vii.  3,  3,  etc. 
3  Cf .  Harnack,  The  Mission  and  Propagation  of  Christianity. 


BAPTISM  183 

Volga — followed  by  his  Court,  embraced  Judaism.  It 
is,  however,  doubtful  whether  the  Jewish  religion  was 
so  far  adopted  and  practised  by  the  Chazars  as  to  have 
outlived  the  Chazar  kingdom,  which  was  destroyed  at 
the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century.1 

The  admission  of  Jews  to  modern  European  culture 
at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  occasioned 
a  great  number  of  conversions  to  Christianity.  Hardly 
a  single  famous  Jew  of  the  time  in  Germany  avoided 
this  step.  Leopold  Zunz  himself,  who  devoted  his  life 
to  the  study  of  Jewish  literature,  describes  his  fidelity  to 
Judaism  as  the  "  great  cage  of  his  soul."  In  the  short 
period  between  1819-1823  in  Berlin,  which  contained 
at  that  time  3,610  Jewish  inhabitants,  there  were  no 
less  than  1,236  converts  to  Christianity,  and  in  the 
rest  of  Prussia  1,382.  From  1850-1880  the  conver- 
tionist  movement  in  Germany  abated  considerably, 
because  at  this  time  Liberalism  was  in  full  sway,  and 
the  profession  of  Judaism  entailed  no  social  disrespect 
and  exclusion,  and  there  was  thus  no  occasion  for 
conversion.  The  rate  of  baptism  reached  its  lowest 
point  in  1876,  when  in  Prussia  only  50  Jews  were  bap- 
tised. Since  then — that  is,  since  the  beginning  of  the 
anti-Semitic  movement  in  Germany — the  figures  have 
risen  again  rapidly. 

The  following  table  at  the  conclusion  of  an  essay  of 
De-la-Roi's,  summarises  the  total  number  of  conversions 
frohl  Judaism  to  Christianity  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
De-la-Roi  remarks  that  wherever  his  figures  rest  on 
estimates  he  has  been  most  careful  to  choose  a  lower  in 
preference  to  a  higher,  and  it  is  quite  conceivable  that 
his  approximate  calculation  of  204,500  Jewish  baptisms 

1  The  theory  that  the  Karaites  in  Crimea  of  to-day  are  descendants 
of  the  Chazars  cannot  be  unconditionally  accepted. 


184 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


*  in  the  nineteenth  century  not  only  does  not  exceed  the 
j  actual  number,  but  may  perhaps  fall  slightly  short  of 
|  it.  It  must  be  noticed  that  this  figure  includes  neither 
t  Jewish  converts  to  dissenting  creeds  nor  baptised 
children  of  mixed  marriages. 

DEFECTIONS  FROM  JUDAISM. 


To 

In 

Total. 

Protestant 
Church. 

Roman 
Catholic 
Church. 

Greek 
Church. 

Prussia, 

13,128 

I    5,000 

^ 

Bavaria, 

330 

Saxony, 

770 

1 

22,520 

Wurtemberg, 

115 

Rest  of  Germany,  - 

3.177 

J 

Great  Britain, 

28,830 

28,830 

Holland, 

1,800 

I,8oo 

Sweden  and  Norway, 

500 

500 

Denmark, 

IOO 

IOO 

Switzerland, 

IOO 

IOO 

France, 

600 

I.800 

2,400 

Austria, 

Hungary,      ... 

6,300 
2,056 

28,200 
8,000 

\         200 

} 

44.756 

Russia, 

3.I36 

12,000 

69,400 

84.536 

Italy,  - 

300 

300 

Roumania,   - 

1,500 

1,500 

Turkey, 

3.300 

3.300 

Rest  of  Balkan  Penin.,  - 

IOO 

IOO 

Asia  and  Africa,    - 

IOO 

500 

600 

Australia,     - 

200 

200 

North  America,     - 

II,500 

1,500 

13,000 

Total,      - 

72,742 

57.300 

74.500 

204,542 

B.  Baptism  at  the  present  day. 

The  frequency  of  defection  from  Judaism  during  the 
last  two  decades  will  be  seen  from  the  following  table. 
This  shows  that  the  number  of  converts  yearly  among 
10,000  Jews  rises  from  1  (in  Galicia)  to  40  (in  Vienna). 


I 

JAPTISM 

i85 

Conversions 

from  Judaism 

Conversion 
per  10,000 

In 

Years. 

Annual 
Average. 

Jews 

yearly. 

Galicia  and  Bukovina, 

1900-1903 

ca.  90 

I 

Russia,    -          -          -          - 

1881-1890 

689 

i-5 

1891-1897 

I02I 

2 

Hungary, 

1896-1907 

446 

5 

Germany, 

1896-1900 

480 

8 

1904 

497 

8 

Servia,     - 

1894-1903 

6 

10 

Budapest, 

1903 

226 

13 

Berlin,      .          .          -          - 

1899-1903 

153 

15 

Austria   (excluding  Galicia 

and  Bukovina), 

1900-1903 

ca.  800 

25 

Dresden,  -          -          -          - 

1886-1906 

10 

33 

Vienna,    - 

1901-1905 

580 

39 

1906 

643 

40 

We  will  now  separately  consider  each  country  of 
which  we  have  accurate  statistics  with  regard  to  con- 
versions. In  Russia  the  numbers  of  annual  Jewish 
conversions  to  the  Greek  Church  varied  considerably  in 
the  nineteenth  century.  They  rose  at  times  of  Jewish 
persecution  and  oppression,  only  to  fall  again  when  these 
ceased.1  Thus,  the  annual  number  of  baptisms  from 
1836-1840  was  on  an  average  394,  rising  in  the  decade 
1841-1850  to  an  average  of  1,540,  and  reaching  its 
climax  in  1854  with  4,439,  after  which  it  decreased. 
From  1881-1890  the  yearly  average  was  689,  from 
1891-1894  it  rose  again  to  1,021. 

Galicia  and  Bukovina,  where  baptism  is  very  rare, 
must  be  distinguished  from  the  rest  of  Austria  :    there 


1  In  Russia,  till  quite  recently,  return  to  the  Greek  Church  was 
impossible  for  an  apostate  from  it.  Anyone  could  become  a  member 
of  the  Church,  but  defection  from  it  into  another  religion  was  for- 
bidden by  law  and  severely  punished.  This  enactment  was  first 
suspended  in  1909  by  the  law  relating  to  freedom  of  religion. 


186  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

conversion  is  practically  confined  to  Cracow  and  Lem- 
berg,  and  even  in  those  places  it  reaches  no  higher  figure 
than  about  one  to  every  10,000  Jewish  inhabitants. 
In  the  rest  of  Austria,  however,  conversion  is  far  more 
prevalent,  particularly  in  Vienna — the  metropolis  of 
converts — for  which  we  give  accurate  figures  below. 
According  to  a  calculation  of  Thon,  the  defections  in  all 
Austria  amounted  to  about  goo  converts  annually  in 
the  years  1900-1903,  i.e.  one  to  every  1,480  Jews,  in 
Austria.  Excluding  Galicia,  Bukovina  and  Vienna, 
the  figure  is  one  convert  to  every  500  Jews. 

In  the  kingdom  of  Hungary  in  the  twelve  years 
1896-1907  a  total  of  5,148  Jews  (2,603  male  and  2,545 
female)  were  converted  to  Christianity,  and  1,065  Chris- 
tians (471  male  and  594  female)  re-embraced  Judaism 
(i.e.  returned  to  the  Jewish  religion,  after  having  de- 
serted to  Christianity),  giving  a  total  loss  of  4,083  souls 
to  Judaism.  The  Christian  converts  to  Judaism  (when 
they  are  not  baptised  Jews,  who  compose  almost  a  third 
of  all  the  converts)  are  practically  without  exception 
cases  of  conversion  due  to  marriage  with  a  Jew  or 
Jewess,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  these  proselytes  and 
their  descendants  will  long  remain  faithful  to  Judaism. 
However  this  may  be,  these  conversions  prove  that 
numbers  of  Jews  cling  so  faithfully  to  Judaism  that 
they  not  only  refuse  all  the  social  advantages  afforded 
by  conversion  to  Christianity,  but  actually  achieve  the 
conversion  of  their  Christian  mates  to  Judaism  in 
spite  of  all  its  social  obstacles.  From  1901-1905  con- 
version increased  markedly  in  Hungary,  for  Jewish 
defections  to  Christianity  which  amounted  in  1 896-1900 
to  an  average  of  261,  rose  in  1901-1905  to  420,  to  fall 
again  in  the  years  1906-1907  to  370.  To  these  must  be 
added  the  Jews  who  became  Freethinkers,  amounting 


BAPTISM  187 

from  1896-1907  to  201  persons,  i.e.  about  17  annually. 
It  is  interesting  to  observe  what  numbers  of  Jews  in 
Hungary  have  changed  their  names.  Of  2,148  persons 
who  adopted  Hungarian  names  in  the  first  six  months 
of  1902,  there  are  95  of  the  name  of  Kahn  and  many 
Blaus,  Brauns  and  Weisses,  who  are  undoubtedly  Jews. 
It  is  impossible  to  trace  in  how  many  cases  the  change 
of  name  has  been  accompanied  by  baptism. 

In  Servia  from  1894-1903  there  were  baptised  annu- 
ally an  average  of  six  Jews,  or  one  to  every  1,000. 

In  Germany  the  only  statistics  to  hand  are  those  of 
the  Protestant  National  Church,  those  of  converts  to 
Catholicism  being  unknown.  In  the  years  1896-1900 
the  annual  average  of  Jewish  conversions  to  Protes- 
tantism was  480,  increasing  in  1904  to  497.  Against 
this  from  1896-1900  the  annual  average  of  Christian 
conversions  to  Judaism  is  25,  and  in  the  year  1904,  52, 
which,  when  compared  to  the  corresponding  higher 
figures  in  Hungary,  clearly  goes  to  prove  that  in  Ger- 
many the  adoption  of  Judaism  by  the  Gentile  is  a  much 
rarer  occurrence,  and  that  the  German  Jew  is  a  far 
less  zealous  upholder  of  Judaism.  Compared  with  the 
previous  decade,  the  number  of  Jewish  baptisms 
has  greatly  increased,  for  the  annual  average  in  the 
nine  old  provinces  of  Prussia  from  1881  to  1887 
amounted  to  160,  as  against  291  from  1891-1897 — 
thus  doubling  itself,  while  the  number  of  Jews  was 
about  stationary. 

The  desire  of  the  German  Jew  for  assimilation,  shown 
by  the  rapid  spread  of  baptism,  is  shown  too  by  the 
Christian  names  of  the  children,  which  are  almost  in- 
variably Teutonic.  Jewish  names,  which  till  about 
fifty  years  ago  were  generally  given  to  Jewish  children, 
are  now  very  uncommon.     The  attempts  of  many  Jews 


188  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

to  change   their  Jewish  surnames   have  failed  up  till 
now,  chiefly  because  they  have  been  refused  the  neces- 
sary official  consent,  so  that  Jewish  surnames  are  still 
relatively  numerous.     Of   the  20,133  members  of  the 
Jewish  community  in  Berlin  in  the  year  1904,  3  per 
cent,  were  called  Cohn  (under  various  forms  of  the  name) 
and  1.71  per  cent.  Levy  ;    besides  these,  there  were 
numbers  of  other  Biblical  surnames. 
*     In  England,   where  there  are  no  obstacles  to  the 
change   of  names,  Jewish  immigrants  of  the  second 
I  generation  try  to  anglicise  their  names — at  any  rate 
f  partially  so  that  the  English  may  be  able  to  pronounce 
I  them— thus,  instead  of  Cohen  we  have  Cowen,  instead 
I  of  Heimann,  Hymans,  etc. 

In  this  connection  we  would  say  that  in  Holland  also 
Jewish  first-names  are  rejected  in  favour  of  Dutch 
names,  although  most  Jews  there  are  orthodox.  We 
have  no  statistics  of  baptism  in  Holland. 

Baptism  among  the  Jews  thrives  best  in  large  towns, 
and  for  many  reasons.  Here  modern  capitalistic 
economic  life  is  most  highly  developed,  and  all  economic 
differences  between  Christians  and  Jews  effaced.  Edu- 
cation,* controlled  by  the  rationalism  and  anti-dogma- 
tism of  the  day  has  laid  a  common  moral  foundation 
for  both  Jews  and  Christians.  The  control  of  the 
Jewish  community  over  its  members  is  relaxed  because 
of  the  large  numbers  of  members.  And  finally,  the 
continual  intermarriage  of  Jews  and  Christians,  which 
is  most  frequent  in  large  towns,  is  a  repeated  cause  of 
defection  to  Christianity,  as  mixed  marriage  is  very 
closely  allied  to  conversion.  They  are  both  the  results 
of  the  intimate  relations  maintained  between  Christians 
and  Jews,  living  the  same  social  life  based  on  modern 
culture  and  economic  conditions.     Each  reacts  on  the 


BAPTISM  189 

other  ;  intermarriage  entailing  baptism,  as  we  have 
shown,  while  the  baptised  Jew  or  Jewess  on  the  other 
hand  invariably  chooses  a  Christian  and  not  a  Jewish 
spouse.  Mixed  marriage  and  baptism,  however,  differ 
in  one  respect,  namely,  in  the  influence  exercised  on  them 
by  social  contempt.  Intermarriage  flourishes  where 
there  is  no  social  or  religious  disrespect  for  Judaism, 
and  where,  therefore,  intimate  and  easy  intercourse 
between  Jews  and  Christians  favours  marriage  between 
the  two.  Baptism,  on  the  other  hand,  is  most  pre- 
valent where,  in  spite  of  legal  equality,  Jews  are  socially 
despised,  a  condition  which  they  hope  to  overcome  by 
baptism.  For  this  reason  in  Australia  and  South 
America,  where  Jews  are  in  every  respect  the  social 
equals  of  Christians,  much  intermarriage  but  little 
baptism  takes  place.  In  Vienna,  on  the  other  hand, 
where  violent  anti-Semitism  is  well  known  to  pre- 
vail, the  numbers  of  baptisms  exceed  those  of  inter- 
marriage. 

In  Berlin  there  have  been  records  of  baptisms  for 
many  years.  While  from  1881-1887  the  average  annual 
defection  to  Protestantism  was  only  66 — making  one 
convert  to  every  1,000  Jews  1 — from  1899-1903  the 
annual  average  rose  to  153,  i.e.  one  convert  to 
every  800  Jews.  If  to  these  are  added  the  converts 
to  Catholicism  and  to  dissenting  creeds,  the  total 
number  amounts  to  at  least  200  annually,  i.e.  one 
convert  to  every  600  Jewish  inhabitants.  Although 
the  reports  of  the  Berlin  Jewish  community  from  1899- 
1903  account  for  only  115,  and  from  1904-1906  for 
157  persons — 107  male  and  50  female — as  having  de- 
clared their  renunciation  of  Judaism  before  the  Courts, 
the  difference  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  in  the  figures 

1  Referring  to  the  Jewish  population  of  Berlin  and  its  suburbs. 


igo  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

given  of  the  Berlin  community,  children  of  Jewish 
parents  baptised  in  extreme  youth  are  not  counted, 
while  the  above  figures  of  the  actual  baptisms  (con- 
versions to  Protestantism)  include  a  number  of  such 
children.1 

In  Dresden  from  1886-1906,  200  Jews  in  all  became 
Protestants  and  15  Protestants  were  converted  to 
Judaism. 

In  Vienna  the  number  of  Jews  who  became  either 
Christians  or  Freethinkers  in  1906  was  643,  bringing 
the  percentage  up  to  one  convert  to  about  every  229 
Jews.  From  1901-1905  the  average  number  of  converts 
annually  in  Vienna  was  580,  which  makes  one  to  every 
253  Jews  yearly,  while  conversions  fifteen  years  earlier, 
from  1886-1890,  amounted  to  a  yearly  average  of  33, 
i.e.  one  convert  to  every  359  Jews.  Conversion,  there- 
fore, increased  very  considerably  up  to  1906.  And 
the  above  figures  do  not  include  children  under  seven 
years  of  age,  who— by  Austrian  law — change  their 
religion  with  their  parents.  There  is,  of  course,  the 
consideration  that  in  Austria  intermarriage  between 
Jews  and  Christians  is  forbidden.  If  a  Jew  or  Jewess 
wishes  to  marry  a  Christian,  one  or  other  of  the  parties 
has  either  to  become  "  of  no  confession,"  or  to  embrace 
the  faith  of  the  other.  This  causes  many  defections 
from  Judaism  which  would  be  unnecessary  in  countries 
where  mixed  marriage  is  acknowledged.  The  statistics 
of  both  Berlin  and  Vienna  show  that  the  upper  educated 
classes — the  so-called  "  Intellectuals  " — are  just  those 
who  provide  a  disproportionate  number  of  apostates. 
Thus,  in  Berlin  from  1873-1906,  of  the  1,388  converted 

1  In  spite  of  much  enquiry  I  have  been  unable  to  obtain  accurate 
statistics  of  infant  baptism.  Cf.  Blau,  "Defections  from  Judaism 
in  Berlin,"  Zeitschrift  f.  Dem.  u.  Stat.  d.  Juden,  1907,  P-  145- 


BAPTISM  191 

Jews  of  definite  professions,  489  =  35.9  per  cent.,  were 
University  students.  In  Vienna  in  1906,  when  the 
total  number  of  converted  Jews  was  643,  no  fewer  than 
105  of  these  were  professional  men  (doctors,  lawyers, 
men  of  letters)  and  40  were  students  and  scholars — so 
that  the  "  Intellectuals  "  formed  almost  one-quarter 
of  the  converts. 

As  against  the  643  defections  from  Judaism  in  Vienna 
in  1906,  there  were  84  converts  to  Judaism — quite  a 
considerable  number.  From  1901  to  1905  the  average 
annual  number  was  72.  Whenever  the  converts  are 
not  Jewish  renegades,  they  are  almost  without  excep- 
tion Christians  desirous  of  marrying  Jews  or  Jewesses. 

In  Budapest  in  the  year  1903  (the  Budapest  com- 
munity alone,  not  including  Ofen  and  Alt-Ofen)  there 
were  226  Jewish  converts  (146  male  and  80  female), 
and  of  these  214  became  Christians,  12  Freethinkers.1 
Hence  (according  to  the  figures  given  in  the  census  of 
1900)  to  every  748  Jews  there  was  one  convert.  In 
the  same  year,  however,  45  Jews  (20  men  and  25 
women),  who  had  embraced  other  creeds,  returned 
again  to  Judaism. 

Defection  to  dissenting  creeds  is  often  preferred  to 
conversion  to  Christianity  because  it  does  not  entail 
baptism.  It  is  less  severely  condemned  by  the  Jewish 
community,  and  it  avoids  the  dishonour  of  having  to 
make  an  open  confession  of  a  faith  which,  in  almost 
every  case,  is  adopted  not  out  of  conviction,  but  for  | 
purely  material  reasons,  as  an  essential  of  modern 
culture,  or  else  in  order  to  facilitate  marriage  with  a 
Christian.  It  is  with  this  view  that  Jewish  parents  in 
Germany  often  have  their  children  baptised  as  babies, 

1 1  am  indebted  for  these  figures  to  the  late  Dr.  J.  v.  Korosi, 
Director  of  the  General  Statistical  Bureau  of  Budapest. 


192  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

while  they  themselves  remain  Jewish.  In  the  United 
States,  too,  Jews  frequently  adopt  one  61  the  many 
religious  creeds  in  preference  to  being  baptised. 

C.  Missionary  societies. 

We  can  dismiss  with  a  few  words  those  missionary 
■)  Societies  which  devote  themselves  to  the  conversion  of 
Jews  to  Christianity.  In  the  whole  world  there  are 
112  such  Protestant  Societies  alone  (according  to  a 
report  for  1902)  which  maintain  228  mission  stations 
with  816  missionaries  and  other  employees.1  Their 
income  amounts  to  over  £125,000  (2 J  million  marks), 
£100,000  of  which  is  supplied  by  Great  Britain  alone, 
which  country  also  furnishes  by  far  the  greatest  numbers 
of  missionaries.  According  to  De-la-Roi,  380  Jews 
are  brought  into  the  Church  every  year  by  these  socie- 
ties, a  greater  number — said  to  be  influenced  by  the 
missionaries — being  baptised  by  vicars  of  churches. 
The  largest  of  the  Missionary  Societies  is  that  founded 
in  London  in  1809  :  "  The  Society  for  Promoting 
Christianity  amongst  the  Jews,"  which  controls  a 
yearly  income  of  £40,000  ;  in  1902-1903  it  spent  £38,061 
for  its  own  purposes,  and  it  supports  214  missionaries 
and  agents  in  51  mission  stations  posted  in  different 
parts  of  the  world.  From  1809-1897  the  Society  bap- 
tised 1,871  Jews  in  London,  and  about  7,000  Jews  in  all 
its  stations.  Considering  the  tremendous  sums  ex- 
pended on  them,  these  results  are  utterly  contemptible, 
especially  when  we  reflect  that  the  majority  of  the  con- 
verts would  in  any  case  have  become  Christians  without 
the  intervention  of  the  missionaries.  If  their  activity 
consisted  solely  in  actual  missionising — the  preachings. 

1  Geography  and  Atlas  of  Protestant  Missions,  vol.  ii.  New  York, 
1906. 


BAPTISM  193 

of  the  Gospel — it  would  not  have  achieved  even  this 
small  result,  for  Jews  are  peculiarly  irresponsive  to 
such  propaganda.  But  luckily  for  the  missionaries, 
social  conditions  come  to  their  aid  and  bring  them  a 
few  proselytes.  By  far  the  greater  number  of  the  con- 
verts come  from  the  upper  classes,  from  the  forty  or 
fifty  thousand  Jews  settled  for  generations  in  England, 
who  have  acquired  wealth  and  position,  and  not  from 
the  200,000  Jewish  immigrants  from  Russia,  Galicia 
and  Roumania,  who  inhabit  special  quarters  of  London, 
Manchester  and  Liverpool.  The  Whitechapel  Jew  is 
unaffected  by  the  missionaries  of  the  above-mentioned 
large  Society  and  the  continual  agitations  of  a  number 
of  smaller  societies,  although,  living  as  he  does  often 
under  the  most  wretched  conditions,  baptism  would 
procure  him  considerable  material  advantage,  careful 
attention  for  several  months,  and  protection  for  the 
future.  The  spirit  of  the  Ghettos  of  Russia  and  Galicia 
is  still  alive  in  him  ;  but  whether  this  will  be  the  case 
in  the  next  and  following  generations^  is  impossible 
to  say.  It  may  be  that  the  missions  will  then  reap  their 
richest  harvest  from  what  is  now  very  barren  soil. 

D.  Prognostics  for  the  future. 

To  take  a  general  survey  of  the  position,  we  may  say 
that  a  considerable  increase  is  noticeable  in  the  number 
of  baptisms  in  the  western  countries  of  to-day.  The 
Jewish  community  of  Austria  (not  counting  Galicia) 
loses  every  year  more  than  2,  of  Germany  at  least  i, 
of  Hungary  about  §  per  1,000  of  its  members  to  Chris- 
tianity. On  the  other  hand,  the  mass  of  the  Jews  in 
Russia  and  Galicia — the  first  of  the  four  classes  indi- 
cated in  Chap.  I. — withstand  all  Christian  influence, 
and  suffer  only  very  trifling  losses.     Moreover,   the 


194  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

off  shoots  of  these  communities,  in  England  and 
.  America — the  second  class — have  till  now  resisted 
fairly  successfully  any  tendencies  towards  baptism.  It 
is  in  the  third  class,  among  the  well-to-do  bourgeoisie 
of  West  and  Central  Europe,  that  aversion  to  baptism 
first  shows  signs  of  diminution,  and  its  possibility  is 
freely  discussed.  In  the  fourth  class — which  includes 
the  rich  Jews  of  the  capitals  and  Jews  of  University 
training — baptism,  for  the  children  at  least,  has  almost 
become  the  rule.  If  numbers  of  men  and  women  cannot 
decide  to  be  baptised,  it  is  not  so  much  because  of  their 
love  of  Judaism  as  of  their  unwillingness  to  face  the 
reproach  of  cowardice  and  treachery  by  deserting  a 
minority  which  is  in  danger,  and  is  being  attacked  on 
all  sides.  Others  cannot  convince  themselves  of  the 
superiority  of  Christian  dogmas,  and  are  unwilling  to 
perjure  themselves  by  embracing  the  Christian  faith  ; 
if,  however,  they  adopt  the  expedient  of  becoming 
dissenters,  the  whole  purpose  of  the  change  of  religion, 
(viz.,  the  unconditional  reception  into  and  equality  of 
status  in  society  and  culture  in  France,  Germany  or 
elsewhere)  is  often  destroyed ;  it  is  actual  adherence 
to  Christianity  which  is  demanded,  the  dissenter  being 
frequently  held  in  as  much  contempt  as  the  Jew. 
Finally,  the  fact  that  even  the  baptised  Jew  is  not 
at  once  placed  on  a  level  with  the  real  Christian,  but 
is  for  some  time  treated  as  something  intermediary 
between  a  Jew  and  a  Christian,  acts  as  a  deterrent. 
1  This  disrespect  from  the  Gentile  is  all  the  more  galling 
for  the  baptised  Jew,  because  it  comes  from  his  own 
newly  adopted  camp,  and  he  is  a  defenceless  victim  ; 
whereas  the  unbaptised  Jew  can  proudly  wrap  himself 
in  the  robe  of  an  ancient  community  and  an  ancestral 
religion.     Thus    anti-Semitism,   although   encouraging 


BAPTISM  195 

baptism  among  weaker  characters,  yet  holds  together 
a  number  of  heterogeneous  elements  in  Judaism,  which, 
without  this  outside  pressure,  might  already  have  con- 
verted. But  such  resistance,  founded  purely  on  senti- 
ment, cannot  last  for  many  generations.  Baptism  is 
only  the  last  phase  of  assimilation,  and  with  the 
constant  striving  after  assimilation,  it  will  necessarily 
persevere  and  spread.  The  only  means  of  arresting  it 
would  be  the  disappearance  of  all  social  contempt  for 
the  Jew,  but  then  what  was  lost  as  a  result  of  baptism 
would  be  doubled  and  trebled  as  a  result  of  mixed 
marriages.  And  it  is  this  intermarriage  which  is  the 
most  serious  menace  to  Judaism.  Exclusion  of  inter- 
marriage  is  what  has  preserved  Judaism  throughout  ! 
the  ages  ;  its  intrusion  will  bring  about  her  downfall. 

It  might  be  argued  that  baptism  has  no  more  effect 
upon  the  Jewish  type  than  it  has  upon  the  negro,  and 
that  therefore  from  an  ethnological  and  anthropological 
standpoint,  it  brings  about  no  change.  This  in  itself 
is  correct,  but  two  circumstances  operate  to  counteract 
it :  first,  as  has  already  been  shown,  the  baptised  Jew, 
or  at  any  rate  his  children,  marry  Christians  ;  and 
secondly,  as  the  Jews  everywhere  constitute  a  small 
minority  of  the  whole  population,  all  traces  of  Jewish 
blood  sooner  or  later  disappear.  Thus  the  offspring  of 
the  baptised  Jew  is  not  only  lost  to  Judaism,  but  also 
to  the  Jewish  nation. 

Will  the  losses  suffered  by  Judaism  through  baptism 
continue  in  the  future  ?  The  answer  to  this  question 
lies  in  what  we  have  already  said.  It  must  decidedly 
be  in  the  affirmative  if  the  process  of  decomposition 
continues  which  has  divided  the  Jews  into  different 
sections,  i.e.  with  the  continuation  of  the  advance  of 
the  poor  Jews  with  a  smattering  of  secular  education 


196  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

(indicated  in  the  first  and  second  sections)  into  the  ranks 
of  the  well-to-do  classes  with  their  modern  education 
(the  third  and  fourth  sections)  ;  for  these  last  two 
sections  fall  away  in  time  through  baptism  and  inter- 
marriage. The  question  is,  therefore,  whether  the 
tendencies  which  have  hitherto  induced  Jews  of  the  first 
and  second  sections  to  aspire  to  join  the  third  and 
fourth,  will  continue  in  the  same  direction  in  the 
future  ?  The  economic  progress  of  the  Jews  and  the 
growing  culture  of  their  surroundings  make  it  clear 
that  the  answer  must  be  that  an  increase  of  baptism 
is  all  that  can  be  expected. 
P 


CHAPTER  XII. 

ANTI-SEMITISM    AN    INEFFECTIVE   CHECK   TO 
"w-  **  ASSIMILATION. 

A.  Anti-Semitism  in  Germany  and  Austria. 

We  have  already  seen  that  resistance  to  assimilation 
is  no  longer  to  be  expected  from  the  Jews  ;  will  it  per- 
haps come  from  the  Christians  ?  Signs  are  not  wanting 
that  to  a  certain  section  of  Christians  the  assimilation 
of  the  Jews  is  highly  undesirable.  We  are  not  speaking 
of  Russia  and  the  semi-civilised  states  of  North  Africa 
and  Asia,  where  Jews  are  subject  to  special  legislation  1 
and  are,  to  a  certain  extent,  prevented  from  assimi- 
lating.    Even   in    those   countries    where    Jews    have 

1  Russian  legislation  in  regard  to  Jews  is  very  complicated.  It 
is  founded  principally  on  the  May  Laws  of  1882,  the  so-called  laws 
of  Ignatieff,  the  principal  clauses  of  which  are  : 

(a)  That  all  Jews  (with  the  exception  of  those  who  have  received 
a  University  education,  master  mechanics,  and  merchants  of  the 
first  guild)  shall  reside  only  in  Poland  and  the  fifteen  neighbouring 
governmental  departments — the  so-called  Pale  of  Settlement — and 
shall  not  have  the  right  of  moving  from  towns  to  villages  even 
within  the  Pale  of  Settlement. 

(b)  That,  with  few  exceptions,  any  acquisition  of  land  shall  be 
denied  them. 

(c)  That  their  active  and  passive  powers  of  voting  in  Local  Councils 
(for  town  magistrates,  etc.)  shall  be  restricted. 

(d)  That  their  admittance  to  secondary  schools  and  Universities 
shall  be  strictly  limited,  and  their  way  barred  absolutely  to  certain 
callings,  such  as  those  of  military  officers,  State  officials,  etc. 


198  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

absolute  legal  equality  a  movement  called  anti-Semitism 
has  been  set  on  foot  which  aims  at  depriving  the  Jews 
of  their  political  and  social  rights. 

The  anti-Semitic  movement  grew  up  on  German  soil ; 
it  is  almost  as  old  as  the  enfranchisement  of  the  Jews. 
Legal  equality  was  granted  to  the  Jews  of  Germany  in 
1869,  and  already  during  the  middle  of  1870 — the  so- 
called  year  of  speculation — when  Germany  was  passing 
through  an  economic  crisis,  the  old  hatred  of  the  Jews 
flamed  up  again,  and  they  were  accused  of  being  the 
cause  of  the  crisis.     A  political  party  was  formed  with 
the  express  and  openly-avowed  purpose  of  attacking 
the  Jews  socially  and  politically.     This  party  in  the 
Reichstag  represented  248,500  votes  in  1907  (2.21  per 
cent,   of  the  total  suffrage)    and   15   mandates.     The 
greatest  number  of  its  supporters  came  from  the  king- 
dom of  Saxony,  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Hesse,  and  the 
provinces  of  Hessen-Nassau  and  Pomerania.     At  the 
present  time  the  party  is  not  making  great  progress  ; 
in  fact,  since  1898,  when  it  represented  284,250  votes 
=  3.7  per  cent.,  it  has  retrogressed.     To  make  up  for 
this,  however,  the  powerful  Conservative  party  in  its 
programme  of  1892  (the  so-called  Tivoli  programme) 
took  up  the  fight  against  the  "  increasing  and  disinte- 
grating influence  of  the  Jews,"  and  demanded  Christian 
government    for    a    Christian    people,    and    Christian 
teachers    in    Christian    schools.     The    power    of    anti- 
Semitism  to-day  in  Germany,  and  equally  in  Austria 
(where  the  great  Christian  Socialist  party  is  pronoun- 
cedly anti-Semitic)   lies  not  so  much  in  the  political 
party  which  seeks  in  Parliament  to  deprive  the  Jews  of 
legal  equality,  as  in  the  feeling  which  it  has  aroused 
against  the  Jews  in  all  classes  of  the  population  outside 
the  actual  anti-Semitic  party  itself,  and  which  has  led 


ANTI-SEMITISM  AN  INEFFECTIVE  CHECK    199 

almost  to  the  social  ostracism  of  the  Jews.  The  govern- 
ment, in  spite  of  the  nominal  equality  of  the  Jews,  bows 
to  this  public  opinion,  and  only  in  most  exceptional 
instances  confers  an  official  or  University  appointment 
upon  a  Jew  ;  similarly  in  the  army,  a  Jew  can  never 
rise  to  the  rank  of  officer.  Anti-Semitism  has  destroyed 
social  intercourse  between  Jew  and  Christian  to  such 
an  extent — more  particularly  in  the  upper  classes  and 
in  University  circles — that  intercourse  is  either  stopped 
altogether,  or  continued  under  the  cloak  of  an  assumed 
ignorance  of  the  bar  to  really  cordial  relations.  Even 
in  commercial  relations,  the  influence  of  anti-Semitism 
is  felt.  We  see  this  in  newspaper  advertisements  for 
partnership,  etc.,  where  we  read  "only  Christians  need 
apply,"  and  again  in  the  popular  refrain,  "  Do  not  buy 
of  Jews." 

B.  Anti-Semitism  in  other  countries. 

In  Roumania  anti-Semitism  is  stronger  even  than  in 
Germany  and  Austria,  and  here  the  government  assists 
in  framing  rules  for  the  degradation  of  the  Jews.  By 
Article  44  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  1878,  legal  equality 
for  the  Jews  was  stipulated  for  by  the  signatory  powers. 
Nevertheless,  the  Roumanian  government  withholds 
this  equality  from  the  great  mass  of  its  Jews  ;  it  evades 
the  law  by  classing  the  Jews  as  "  foreigners  under  Rou- 
manian protection,"  and  applying  against  them  the 
laws  as  to  foreigners.  In  this  way  the  Jews  are  not 
only  deprived  of  their  rights  of  citizenship,  but  suffer 
great  economic  injury,  as  the  government  reserves 
certain  privileges  exclusively  for  Roumanians.  This  is 
all  the  more  unjust  since  the  government  does  not  regard 
the  Jews  as  foreigners  in  all  matters  relating  to  their 
obligations  to  the  State,  as  for  instance  military  service, 


200  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

which  Jews  are  bound  to  perform  equally  with  Rou- 
manians. Very  few  Jews  have  so  far  succeeded  in  be- 
coming naturalised,  and  so  recognised  as  Roumanian. 
By  the  census  of  1899,  the  following  number  of  Jews 
were  classed  as 

Roumanians, 4,272=    1.6  per  cent. 

Foreigners  dependent  on  the  State,       -  5,859=   2.2   ,,      „ 

Foreigners  under  Roumanian  protection,     256,588  =  96.2   „      ,, 

In  France,  the  Dreyfus  case  showed  how  easily  the 
feeling  of  the  masses  against  the  Jews  can  be  aroused, 
and  in  the  French  colony  of  Algiers  there  is  actually  a 
strong  anti-Semitic  party.  Even  in  England  there 
exist  anti-Semitic  tendencies.  In  the  United  States 
of  America,  where  twenty  years  ago  anti-Semitism  was 
I  absolutely  unknown,  the  anti-Semitic  movement  has 
grown  so  strong  that  it  has  led  almost  to  a  social  boycott 
of  the  Jews  in  upper  circles,  and  to  hostile  anti-Jewish 
demonstrations  among  the  working  classes.  Over- 
night, as  it  were,  free  America  has  become  an  anti- 
Semitic  country.     The  only  nations  which  can  be  said 

;  to  be  innocent  of  anti-Semitism  are  Italy,  Holland, 
Belgium,  Switzerland,  Norway  and  Sweden  and  the 

;  English  colonies. 

C.  Causes  of  anti-Semitism. 

What  is  the  cause  of  this  smouldering  antipathy  to 
the  Jews,  which  from  1850-1875  was  to  all  appearances 
put' out  for  ever  ?  The  political  anti-Semitism  in  Ger- 
many and  Austria  arises  from  objections  to  the  Jews 
economically,  as  the  typical  representatives  of  capital 
(the  Stock  Exchange)  and  landed  interests,  as  landed 
proprietors,  as  promoters  of  capitalised  enterprise 
(such  as  emporiums,  etc.),  as  shopkeepers,  artisans  and 


ANTI-SEMITISM  AN  INEFFECTIVE  CHECK    201 

money-lenders.  In  England  and  America,  anti-Semi- 
tism arose  because  of  the  great  influx  of  immigrants 
who  are  used  to  a  low  standard  of  living,  are  content 
to  work  for  a  low  wage,  and  so  undercut  the  wages  and 
lower  the  standard  of  living  of  the  native  workman. 
They  thus  incur  the  same  hatred  as  is  directed  in  an 
intensified  form  against  the  Chinese,  and  which  resulted 
in  the  United  States  passing  a  law  to  restrict  Chinese 
immigration  into  the  United  States. 

In  many  countries  the  growing  importance  of  the 
principle  of  nationality  tends  to  emphasise  the  anti- 
thesis between  Jew  and  Christian.  Thus,  anti-Semitism 
in  Roumania — rightly  or  wrongly — is  caused  as  much 
by  fear  that  the  young  Roumanian  nation  will  not  be 
able  to  develop  its  own  individuality  if  the  Jews  are 
allowed  to  gain  too  much  influence,  as  by  dread  of 
Jewish  economic  competition.  Similarly  the  Poles  in 
Galicia  and  the  Magyars  in  Hungary  are  afraid  of  the 
power  of  Jewish  influence,  which  might  be  injurious 
to  the  development  of  their  own  nationalities.  We 
say  nothing  of  Houston  Stewart  Chamberlain  and 
his  school,  who  see  in  the  Jews  the  natural  and 
the  only  dangerous  enemy  of  Germany  and  its 
civilisation. 

Social  anti-Semitism  takes  root  in  countries  where 
numbers  of  Jews,  in  a  very  short  space  of  time,  amass 
great  wealth  either  through  business  or  speculation,  and 
where  they  do  not  seek  to  make  their  culture  and 
manners  comport  with  their  wealth.  They  thus  natur- 
ally create  a  feeling  of  disgust  in  upper  social  circles  to 
which  their  great  wealth  gives  them  access.  It  is  in 
America  particularly  that  these  nouveaux  riches  abound, 
where  the  rich  Jews  serve  as  a  type  of  the  parvenu, 
and  where  he  has  to  submit  to  the  contempt  of  the 


202  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

settled  American  aristocracy  and  the  denial  of  any 
social  intercourse.  In  Germany  and  Austria  the  intro- 
duction of  Jews  into  official  and  upper  circles  is  resented 
in  the  same  way. 

From  the  sociological  point  of  view  there  is  nothing 
uncommon  in  all  this.  It  is  an  echo  of  the  fight  between 
the  connubium  et  commercium  of  ancient  Rome,  and 
the  battle  of  the  guilds  in  the  town  republics  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Wherever  a  hitherto  despised  class — 
conscious  of  its  advance  on  the  social  ladder — seeks 
I  admittance  to  higher  circles,  it  arouses  an  antagonism 
I  which  is,  however,  generally  overcome  in  the  lapse  of 
time.  In  a  democratic  State,  where  no  privileges  of 
birth  or  standing  exist,  class-distinctions  merely  repre- 
sent degrees  of  wealth,  but  a  certain  amount  of  time 
has  always  to  elapse  before  things  are  established  in 
their  true  relations. 

D.  The  importance  of  anti-Semitism  in  the  assimila- 
tionist  movement. 
We  now  come  back  to  our  original  question,  whether 
anti-Semitism  serves  as  a  check  to  assimilation.  Up 
to  a  certain  point  it  certainly  does.  Wherever  anti- 
Semitism  puts  a  stop  to,  or  at  any  rate  hinders,  social 
and  commercial  relations  between  Christians  and  Jews, 
we  find  the  Jews  associating  only  with  their  own  people. 
There  has  been  some  talk  of  "  The  New  Ghetto,"  which 
is  the  outcome  of  this  state  of  things.  It  is  certain  that 
many  mixed  marriages  have  been  avoided  by  the  "cessa- 
tion of  intercourse,"  and  perhaps  many  a  Jew  who 
would  otherwise  have  become  converted  has  remained 
staunch  to  Judaism,  unwilling  to  turn  traitor,  and  leave 
his  people  in  their  time  of  need.  But  on  the  whole,  anti- 
Semitism  can  hardly  be  considered  a  real  obstacle  to 


ANTI-SEMITISM  AN  INEFFECTIVE  CHECK    203 

assimilation.1  It  is  unthinkable  that  either  in  Europe 
or  America  anti-Semitism  could  ever  bring  about  legal 
disabilities  for  Jews.  Any  such  legislation  would  be  a 
direct  break  with  the  political  tradition  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  and  no  State  could  well  take  such  a  step. 
We  must  also  remember  that  all  anti-Jewish  laws  are 
directed  against  the  Jews  as  a  religious  community  ; 
anti-Semitism  is  not  directed  against  the  Jewish  religion 
— it  is  perfectly  indifferent  to  it.  It  is  hostile  to  the 
Jews  as  a  race,  and  as  promoters  of  certain  kinds  of 
industry  and  politics.  Here  legislation  is  powerless. 
Scientifically  the  Jewish  race  may  be  a  perfectly  well- 
defined  thing,  legally  the  term  is  useless,  not  only  be- 
cause Jews  share  their  outward  physical  marks  of  race 
with  other  peoples  (for  instance  with  Armenians  and 
Syrians),  but  also  because  a  certain  percentage  of  ad- 
herents of  the  Jewish  religion  are  not  Jews  by  race,  and 
vice  versa,  many  members  of  the  Jewish  race  have 
become  Christians  through  conversion.  In  Europe  and 
the  United  States  it  is  easy  to  deal  with  negroes,  Indians 
or  Chinese — any  child  can  tell  the  difference  between 
these  races  and  whites.  But  special  treatment  for  Jews 
founded  on  such  a  basis  would  present  insurmountable 
difficulties  in  practice.  Jews,  as  a  race,  are  beyond  the 
reach  of  legislation,  and  still  less  can  they  be  assailed  as 
followers  of  certain  branches  of  trade,  etc.,  since  there  is 
to-day  no  one  such  branch  exclusively  in  Jewish  hands. 
The  danger  of  anti- Jewish  legislation  which  might 
counteract  the  assimilative  movement,  is,  therefore,  still 

1  It  may  be  said  that  anti-Semitism,  through  lowering  the  status 
of  the  Jews,  has  prevented  mixed  marriages  between  Jews  and  non- 
Jews  of  equal  social  standing.  But  it  has  proved  no  hindrance  to 
mixed  marriages  between  Jews  and  those  below  them  in  social 
standing,  and  such  marriages  are  of  frequent  occurrence. 


204  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

far  distant.  Social  anti-Semitism  alone  is  not  strong 
enough  to  stem  assimilation.  The  "  New  Ghetto " 
to  which  it  gives  rise  is  totally  different  to  the  old 
Ghettos  in  which  Judaism  was  sheltered  from  assimila- 
tion. In  the  old  Ghettos  the  Jews  were  singled  out, 
commercially  in  their  callings  of  money-lending  and 
peddling,  and  culturally  by  their  specifically  Jewish 
education.  Even  if  they  had  wanted,  they  could  not 
have  mixed  socially  with  Christians,  their  points  of  view 
being  entirely  different.  To-day,  on  the  other  hand, 
Jews  are  merchants,  bankers,  manufacturers,  lawyers 
and  doctors  equally  with  Christians,  receive  the  same 
school  education,  read  the  same  papers,  and  visit  the 
same  theatres,  lectures  and  so  on.  The  social  isolation 
of  the  Jews  is  not,  as  in  former  times,  a  necessary  result 
of  their  commercial  and  cultural  isolation  ;  it  is  due 
to  commercial  and  national  envy  of  Jewish  competition, 
and  will  fall  away  when  the  cause  for  it  is  removed. 
The  Jews  of  England  and  America  will  not  undercut 
wages  for  ever.  They  have  to  begin  with  low  wages  to 
introduce  new  industries  into  America,  and  to  provide 
some  means  of  subsistence  for  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  Jewish  immigrants,  but  the  demand  for  higher  wages 
grows  with  the  growth  of  the  industries.  And  the 
industrial  reserve — to  adopt  Marx's  phrase — grows  less 
in  spite  of  the  continual  stream  of  immigrants,  because 
Jews  are  always  bringing  in  new  branches  of  trade,  while 
the  children  of  the  immigrants  do  not  remain  in  the 
particularly  Jewish  industries,  but  seek  other  branches 
of  work  and  demand  at  least  as  high  a  wage  as  the 
American  workmen. 

Just  as  the  Jew  will  not  remain  the  type  of  the 
sweater  in  Germany,  so  in  other  countries  he  will  outlive 
his  reputation  as  spoliator  and  destroyer  of  the  middle 


ANTI-SEMITISM  AN  INEFFECTIVE  CHECK    205 

classes.  Jews  have  indeed  played  a  great  part  in 
the  development  of  industry,  banks,  wholesale  trade 
(especially  in  the  introduction  of  the  emporium — so 
injurious  to  retail  trade),  but  it  is  quite  wrong  to  impute 
this  development  to  Jewish  activity  alone.  Not  the 
Jews,  but  the  whole  body  of  enterprising  capitalists 
of  whom  Jews  are  but  a  fraction,  are  responsible  for 
this  development.  If  we  eliminated  all  the  Jews,  we 
should  see  that  the  small  shopkeepers  and  artisans  who 
complain  so  bitterly  to-day  of  overpowering  Jewish 
competition,  and  who  constitute  the  kernel  of  the  anti- 
Semitic  party,  would  be  no  better  off.  The  Jew  goes, 
the  capitalist  remains.  This  much  is  certain  :  whole 
sections  of  the  middle  classes  are  now  occupied  in  new 
commercial  activities,  and  the  time  is  not  far  distant 
when  the  economic  revolution,  caused  by  the  victorious 
progress  of  wholesale  trade,  will  settle  down  to  condi- 
tions of  greater  equality  founded  on  the  principles  of 
wholesale  trade.  The  Jew  will  then,  still  less  than 
to-day,  be  the  typical  representative  of  a  particular 
form  of  trade.  And  the  programme  of  the  anti-Semitic 
party,  which  is  directed  far  more  against  the  capitalist 
than  against  the  Jew,  will  then  have  no  meaning.  To 
sum  up  :  the  economic  condition  which  gives  rise  to  so 
much  antipathy  against  the  Jews  is  a  passing  pheno- 
menon which  will  disappear  altogether  within  a  measur- 
able period  of  time. 

The  same  will  happen  with  the  Jewish  parvenu  and 
snob.  A  Jew  who  has  suddenly  acquired  great  wealth 
may  be  as  ignorant  as  possible,  but  he  is  careful  to  give 
his  children  the  very  best  of  educations,  and  thus  the 
objectionable  qualities  in  the  father  are  wiped  out  in 
the  next  generation.  Wherever  numbers  of  nouveaux 
riches  Jews  live,  especially  in  large  towns,  the  striking 


206  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

difference  between  father  and  sons  is  evident ;  the 
children  of  the  commonest  parents  have  perfect 
manners,  and  are  usually  of  upright  character  and  good 
education. 

When  the  economic  and  social  causes  of  anti-Semitism 
disappear,  there  yet  remains  the  national  opposition. 
But  this  also  will  not  be  of  long  duration.  The  Jews 
are  in  such  small  minorities  in  European  countries  (in 
Roumania  4.5  per  cent.,  in  Hungary  4.4  per  cent.,  in 
Galicia  11.1  per  cent.)  that  the  fear  of  their  assuming 
much  prominence  is  unfounded.  The  Roumanians, 
Magyars,  Ruthenes  and  Poles,  besides,  are  themselves 
developing  so  fast  that  they  need  have  less  cause  to  be 
afraid  of  the  Jews  in  the  future. 

Hitherto  we  have  spoken  of  anti-Semitism  as  an  in- 
sufficient check  to  assimilation  ;  but  on  the  other  hand 
we  must  realise  that  in  many  cases  it  actually  accele- 
rates Jewish  apostacy.  So  long  as  it  continues  to  be 
the  case,  as  it  is  to  day  more  especially  in  Germany 
and  Austria,  that  conversion  is  the  only  road  to  social 
position,  so  long  will  there  be  Jews  who  will  avail  them- 
selves of  baptism  and  formally  renounce  the  Judaism 
to  which  they  were  hitherto,  outwardly  at  least, 
attached.  Anti-Semitism  has  two  opposite  effects  on 
Jews  who  are  inwardly  estranged  from  Judaism  :  those 
whose  only  idea  is  to  get  on,  it  encourages  to  renounce 
Judaism;  while  those  who,  perhaps,  without  anti- 
Semitism  would  have  become  converts,  remain  Jews  out 
of  a  feeling  of  shame  at  taking  such  a  step  just  at  a  time 
when  the  Jews  are  being  attacked  on  all  sides.  As  at 
the  present  day  the  desire  for  honours  and  wealth  is 
more  common  than  idealism  and  devotion  to  one's 
faith,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  destructive  element  in 


ANTI-SEMITISM  AN  INEFFECTIVE  CHECK    207 

anti-Semitism  is  more  effective  than  the  conservative 
element ;  furthermore,  the  children  rarely  follow  in 
the  footsteps  of  the  father,  and  thus  the  inevitable 
result  is  anyhow  only  retarded.  The  gain  which  anti- 
Semitism  brings  to  Judaism  is  ephemeral — the  loss  is 
lasting. 


PART   II.      JEWISH   NATIONALISM. 

SECTION  IV. 
THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

RACE   VALUE   OF   THE  JEWS. 

A.  The  justification  of  the  continued  existence  of  the 
Jews  as  a  separate  nation. 

We  have  shown  how  the  Jews  are  in  the  throes 
of  assimilation — in  some  countries  to  the  extent  of 
complete  denationalisation  and  imminent  danger  of 
absorption.  Even  in  Eastern  Europe,  where  the 
denationalisation  movement  is  still  in  its  infancy,  the 
prospects  for  the  future  are  not  promising.  The  Jews 
of  Eastern  Europe  are  unquestionably  on  a  higher 
cultural  and  social  plane  than  were  the  Jews  of  Prussia 
at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  ;  unless  we  are 
greatly  mistaken,  in  fifty  years'  time  they  will  have 
reached  the  same  standard  of  development  as  the  West 
European  Jews  achieved  during  the  nineteenth  century, 
and  after  that  their  fate  will  be  analogous  to  that  of 
Western  Jewry. 

The  four  sections  of  Jewry,  to  which  we  have  so  often 
referred,  represent  the  same  differences  of  outlook  in 
regard  to  the  continued  existence  of  Jews,  as  they  do  to 
the  Jewish  religion.  The  most  advanced  section  (the 
fourth)  finds  in  the  complete  absorption  of  the  Jews  a 
most  desirable  solution.  The  third  section  is  indifferent 
or  has  no  decided  opinions  on  the  subject ;  in  any  case 
it  would  be  unwilling  to  deprive  itself  of  the  social  and 


212  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

cultural  life  of  its  native  land,  even  if  by  so  doing  it 
might  avert  the  threatening  danger  to  Judaism.  The 
second  section  is  anxious  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Jews  as  upholders  of  the  Jewish  religion,  and  in  the 
furtherance  of  this  ideal  is  willing  to  make  a  certain 
sacrifice  of  social  intercourse.  The  first  section  has  no 
other  aim  in  life  than  the  preservation  of  Judaism  and 
Jewish  life,  for  which  it  is  willing  to  make  any  and  every 
sacrifice. 

Have  the  Jews  a  right  to  a  separate  existence  ?  The 
very  question  is  an  insult  to  the  Jewish  people,  since 
no  other  people  is  required  to  defend  by  argument  its 
right  to  survive.  Not  only  the  German  and  the 
Frenchman,  but  the  Servian,  the  Bulgarian,  the  Rou- 
manian— less  numerous  and  infinitely  less  gifted  than 
the  Jews,  as  they  are — would  never  for  a  moment  think 
of  entering  on  such  an  argument.  To  them  their  right 
to  a  separate  national  existence  is  as  unquestionable 
and  as  unanswerable  as  the  right  of  the  individual  to 
live. 

The  Jews  might  justly  claim  that  a  history  extending 
over  3,000  years  is  sufficient  justification  of  their  con- 
tinued existence.  What  European  nation  can  show 
anything  comparable  with  that  which  the  Jewish  nation 
has  given  to  humanity  ?  What  nation  can  point  to 
such  eagerness  in  well-doing,  such  unity  between  its 
members,  such  appreciation  of  study  and  learning,  such 
fidelity  and  devotion  to  its  faith  and  customs,  as  can 
the  Jewish  nation  ?  Is  this  fidelity,  for  which  our  fore- 
fathers suffered  martyrdom  and  centuries  of  persecu- 
tion, to  be  despised  by  their  successors,  and  replaced 
by  conversion  to  Christianity  ?  No  Jew  will  lightly 
answer  the  question.  Those  very  Jews  who  bow  to 
necessity  and  outwardly  renounce  Judaism  do  so  with 


RACE  VALUE  OF  THE  JEWS  213 

a  certain  inward  shame,  and  preserve  a  feeling  of  pride 
in  their  ancestry,  and  a  respect  for  the  high  spiritual 
qualities  of  their  race. 

But  these,  after  all,  are  only  sentimental  arguments  ; 
if  we  wish  to  get  a  true  answer  to  the  question  whether 
assimilation  is  of  use  or  of  harm  to  the  Jews,  we  must 
first  answer  the  following  question  :  "  Can  the  Jews  do 
more  for  humanity  by  remaining  a  separate  nationality 
than  by  becoming  absorbed  in  other  nations  ? "  A 
people  can  be  of  use  to  humanity  in  two  ways,  firstly 
through  its  race- value,  i.e.  through  the  spiritual  and 
mental  powers  incorporated  in  it,  and  secondly  through 
its  culture.  Whoever  defends  the  right  of  the  Jews  to 
a  separate  existence  must  do  so  either  in  view  of  their 
racial  or  of  their  cultural  value. 

B.  The  intellectual  gifts  of  the  Jews. 

Are  the  Jews  a  highly  gifted  race  ?  Is  there  such  a 
thing  as  a  Jewish  race  ?  It  is  not  our  intention  to 
discuss  the  Jewish  race  question  at  this  stage,  especially 
since  the  subject  has  been  brilliantly  and  exhaustively 
treated  in  Zollschan's  recent  book,  The  Race  Question, 
with  special  reference  to  the  Theoretical  Foundations  of 
the  Jewish  Race  (Vienna,  1909). 1  Of  the  three  great 
race  divisions,  the  white,  the  yellow  and  the  black,  the 
Jews  belong  to  the  white  race,  and  of  the  two  divisions 
within  the  white  race— the  Xanthochroi  (fair-haired) 
and  the  Melanochroi  (dark-haired) — they  belong  to  the 
dark-haired.  The  dark-haired  division  can  be  again 
divided   into    three    groups :    1.    The    inhabitants    of 

1  The  literature  of  the  Jewish  race-question  is  very  plentiful, 
but  much  of  it  is  uncritical  and  unscientific.  Among  valuable 
authorities  may  be  mentioned,  Andree,  Luschau,  Weissenberg, 
Judt,  Elkind,  Auerbach,  Fishberg,  Sofer. 


214  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

Northern  Africa  and  Arabia  (typical  representatives, 
the  Arab  Beduins).  2.  The  remaining  West  and  South 
Asiatic  peoples  (typical  representatives,  Armenians 
and  Persians).  3.  The  Southern  Europeans  (typical 
representatives,  the  Greeks). 

The  Jews  at  their  first  entry  into  history  were  a  cross 
between  the  first  group — to  which  the  Assyrians  and 
Babylonians  belonged  in  ancient  times,  besides  the 
Arabians — and  the  second  group  (Aramaeans,  Hittites). 
The  Jews  took  their  culture  and  language  from  the  first 
group,  and  as  long  as  the  test  of  race  was  language- 
relationship,  the  Jews  were  reckoned  as  belonging  to 
the  Semitic  group.  In  reality  the  Jews  are  more 
nearly  related  anthropologically  to  the  second  group, 
to  the  peoples  of  Asia  Minor  and  Persia,  and  it  is  from 
these  that  they  inherit  their  characteristic  physical 
features.  It  was  the  merit  of  von  Luschau  to  be  the 
first  to  discover  the  physical  resemblance  between 
the  Jews  and  the  races  of  Asia  Minor,  especially  the 
Armenians,1  and  thus  to  strike  a  blow  at  the  Semitic 
theory  which  has  since  been  repudiated  by  all  serious 
scholars. 

The  group  of  peoples  to  which  the  Jews  are  thus  most 
nearly  akin  are  to  this  very  day  remarkable  for  their 
intellectual  energy,  which  makes  them  dangerous 
opponents  in  all  matters  of  trade  and  commerce.  The 
Armenians  are  known  to  be  the  most  practised  and 
capable  merchants  of  the  Orient,  and  the  Persians  are 
famous  for  their  general  commercial  talent  and  high 
mental  and  spiritual  gifts.  This  commercial  talent  is 
not  a  narrow  one-sided  gift  of  chaffering,  it  is  the  sign 

1  The  resemblance  to  the  Armenians  is  quite  remarkable.  The 
most  experienced  anthropologist  might  try  in  vain  to  distinguish 
between  Jews  and  Armenians  in  the  mass. 


RACE  VALUE  OF  THE  JEWS  215 

of  exceptional  intellectual  capacity.  Josef  Kohler 1 
declares  the  Jews  "  one  of  the  most  gifted  races  man- 
kind has  produced,  less  prolific  in  great  geniuses,  but 
overflowing  with  men  of  great  talent."  2  The  reason 
that  the  gifts  of  the  Jews  are  best  manifested  in  com- 
mercial matters  is  simply  due  to  the  fact  that  in  every 
nation  there  are  more  merchants  than  scholars,  and 
intellect  in  trade  brings  therefore  much  more  pro- 
minence than  it  does  in  science.  There  is  no  specific 
commercial  gift ;  the  same  qualities  which  go  to  make 
a  successful  business  man — the  power  of  swift  compre- 
hension, of  logical  thinking,  of  good  judgment,  of 
organisation,  of  quick  action — are  the  same  which  in 
different  circumstances  go  to  make  the  distinguished 
scholar,  politician,  engineer  and  officer.  The  same 
Jews  who  were  able  to  create  new  forms  of  exchange, 
such  as  the  emporium,  and  to  apply  the  technical 
discoveries  of  modern  times  to  economic  life,  would 
have  achieved  through  their  acuteness,  their  powers  of 
organisation  and  their  untiring  energy,  equal  success 
in  other  walks  of  life.  Further,  the  Jews  have  long  ago  I 
ceased  to  be  merely  business  men.  In  Western  Europe  | 
during  the  last  hundred  years  they  have  been  numbered  I 
amongst  the  best  jurists,  politicians,  parliamentarians, 

1  German  Monthly  Magazine,  December  nth,  1910. 

2  The  assertion  that  the  Jews  produce  many  men  of  talent,  but 
few,  if  any,  geniuses  is  a  charge  constantly  brought  up  in  literary 
references  to  Jews.  It  seems  to  us  that  something  more  than  re- 
petition is  required  to  prove  this  thesis.  There  is  no  fixed  line  of 
demarcation  between  talent  and  genius.  But  if  we  accept  the 
difference,  and  admit  that  of  the  great  artists,  scientists  and  poli- 
ticians of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  greatest  geniuses — let  us  say 
Napoleon,  Beethoven,  Goethe,  Darwin — were  not  Jews,  does  this 
show  that  the  Jews,  who  constitute  2  per  cent,  of  the  Christians 
in  Europe,  have  less  genius  than  the  Christians  ? 


216  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

doctors,  engineers,  actors  and  chess-players.1  The 
greatest  English  statesman  of  the  nineteenth  century 
was  the  Jew  Disraeli.  Italy  owes  not  a  little  of  its 
present  commercial  prosperity  to  the  Jewish  ex-Prime 
Minister  Luzzatti ;  the  first  president  of  the  German 
Reichstag  and  Reichsgericht  was  the  Jew  Simson  ;  at 
the  cradle  of  the  most  important  scientific  discoveries 
of  the  New  Age,  the  telephone,  electricity,  the  flying 
machine,  stand  the  Jews  Edison,  Heinrich  Hertz,  and 
Lilienthal ;  the  greatest  social  movement  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  was  the  product  of  the  Jews  Lassalle 
and  Marx^ 

In  earlier  literature  relating  to  the  Jewish  race,  we 
generally  find  an  exaggerated  estimate  of  the  purity 
and  unity  of  the  Jewish  race.     Latterly  a  reaction  has 
set  in,  and  many  authors  deny  altogether  any  unity  of 
race  in  the  Jews.     In  reality,  the  Jews,  in  the  course 
of  their  3,000  years'  history,  have  assimilated  to  a  small 
:  extent  certain  foreign  ethnical  elements,  though  in  the 
1  mass,  as  contrasted  with  the  Central  European  nations, 
I  they  represent  a  well-characterised  race.     In  Southern 
Europe  it  is  more  difficult  to  distinguish  them  from  non- 
Jews,  while  in  Asia  Minor  and  Syria  it  is  practically 
impossible.     But    this    very    likeness    to    the    Asiatic 
peoples,  from  whom  they  have  been  separated  for  2,000 
years,  shows  that  the  Jews  have  remained  unchanged, 
and  that  in  the  Jews  of  to-day  we  may  say  we  have  the 
same  people  who  fought  victoriously  under  King  David, 
who  repented  their  misdeeds  under  Ezra  and  Nehemiah, 
died  fighting  for  freedom  under  Bar-Kochba,  were  the 
I  great  carriers  of  trade  between  Europe  and  the  Orient 
I 

1  The  supremacy  of  the  Jews  as  chess-players  refutes  the  assertion 
so  often  heard  that  the  Jews  have  only  a  practical  bent,  chess  being 
in  the  sphere  of  pure  abstraction. 


RACE  VALUE  OF  THE  JEWS  217 

in  the  early  Middle  Ages,  and  finally  were  excluded 
from  culture  in  the  isolation  and  misery  of  the  Ghettos 
from  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages  onward  for  500  years. 
Thus  the  Jews  have  not  only  preserved  their  great 
natural  racial  gifts,  but  through  a  long  process  of  selec- 
tion these  gifts  have  become  strengthened.  The  terrible 
conditions  under  which  the  Jews  lived  during  the  last  ! 
500  years  necessitated  a  bitter  struggle  for  life  in  which  % 
only  the  cleverest  and  strongest  survived,  while  the 
thirst  for  knowledge,  and  more  especially  the  keen 
exercise  of  the  mind  engendered  by  the  study  of  the 
Talmud,  served  also  to  eliminate  all  but  the  most  gifted. 
The  rich  Jews  of  the  Ghetto  vied  with  one  another  for 
the  most  learned  Talmudic  scholars  as  husbands  for 
their  daughters,  and  thus  insured  the  mental  progress 
of  the  race.1  The  result  is  that  in  the  Jew  of  to-day, 
we  have  what  is  in  some  respects  a  particularly  valuable 
human  type.  Other  nations  may  have  other  points  of 
superiority,  but  in  respect  of  intellectual  gifts  the  Jews 
can  scarcely  be  surpassed  by  any  nation.  For  this  fact 
alone  the  Jews  may  well  claim  their  right  to  a  separate 
existence  and  resist  any  attempt  to  absorb  them. 
That  type  of  Cosmopolitanism,  which  aims  at  the 
greatest  possible  similarity  between  nations,  at  a 
smoothing  away  of  all  their  differences  of  character,  is 
to-day  generally  discredited.  Just  as  it  would  be 
absurd  to  destroy  specific  kinds  of  fruit  in  order  to 
produce  one  general  kind,  so  it  is  equally  absurd 
to  wish  to  wipe  out  national  differences.  Mankind 
to-day  aims   not  at   uniformity,   but  at  making   use 

1  It  is  perhaps  owing  to  this  severe  process  of  selection  that  the 
Ashkenazim  are  to-day  superior  in  activity,  intelligence  and  scientific 
capacity  to  the  Sephardim  and  Arabian  Jews,  in  spite  of  their  common 
ancestry. 


218  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

of  the  individuality  of  every  nation  for  the  common 
good. 

It  might  be  well  to  consider  here  the  vexed  question 
whether  or  not  a  race  can  change  its  character.  In  the 
first  place,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  will  to  breed 
which  produces  varieties  in  plant  and  animal  life, 
often  transforming  them  altogether,  produces  like  effects 
in  the  races  of  men.  We  have  made  frequent  mention 
of  the  preference  of  Jews  for  Talmudic  scholars  as 
husbands  with  a  view  to  rearing  a  higher  race  ;  in  the 
same  way  it  is  likely  that  the  prevalence  of  fair  hair 
among  the  German  Jews,  for  example,  is  due  to  pre- 
ference for  fair  hair  in  the  choice  of  a  husband  or  wife 
(a  result  of  the  effort  after  assimilation) .  In  these  cases 
changes  in  race-character  arise  from  the  cultivation  of 
certain  varieties  within  the  race  itself.  It  is  a  different 
question  whether  a  race  can  be  transformed  by  the  in- 
fluence of  external  conditions.  The  answer  depends 
upon  the  point  of  view.  The  politician  who  reckons 
with  short  spaces  of  time  will  certainly  answer  in  the 
negative,  while  the  biologist,  who  is  interested  not  so 
much  in  actual  changes  of  type  as  in  the  possibility  of 
change,  will  probably  reply  in  the  affirmative.  Absurd 
as  it  would  be  to  expect  a  European  standard  of  culture 
from  the  negroes  in  one  or  two  generations  of  altered 
social  and  economic  conditions,  it  would  be  equally 
presumptuous  to  declare  against  their  being  able  to 
produce  a  high  state  of  culture  hundreds  or  thousands 
of  years  hence.  The  way  in  which  the  spiritual  germ 
gradually  brings  about  a  change  in  the  race  is  still  not 
quite  clear  (the  best  known  explanation  is  Semon's 
Mneme-Theory),  but  that  such  transformations  can  and 
do  take  place  over  long  periods  of  time  is  more  than 
likely.      It    is   highly   probable   too   that   an   ancient 


RACE  VALUE  OF  THE  JEWS  219 

culture  affects  and  moulds  the  character  of  a  race. 
Thus,  for  instance,  the  markedly  rational  trend  of 
thought  and  action  which  is  most  pronounced  in  the 
oldest  nation  of  civilisation — the  Chinese — but  is  notice- 
able also  in  the  descendants  of  the  ancient  Mediter- 
ranean peoples,  the  Armenians,  Jews,  Greeks  and 
Persians,  may  be  explained  by  this  consideration.  The 
rationalism  of  the  Jew  thus  becomes  a  result  of  his 
ancient  culture,  and  the  peoples  of  Northern  Europe 
will  at  some  future  time  arrive  at  the  stage  at  which  the 
Jew  stands  to-day. 

C.  The  artistic  proclivities  of  the  Jews. 

The  cultural  value  of  a  nation  is  determined  not  only 
by  its  intellectual,  but  by  its  artistic  and  ethical 
qualities.  Should  the  Jews,  in  comparison  with  other 
nations,  fall  short  in  these  provinces,  their  intellectual 
gifts  might  indeed  be  disparaged  and  their  value  to 
humanity  considered,  at  best,  a  negative  one.  It  is, 
indeed,  often  asserted  that  the  Jews  are  not  deeply 
artistic,  that  they  have  produced  no  artistic  genius. 
But  when  we  remember  that  a  few  hundred  thousand 
Jews  in  Germany  alone  in  the  nineteenth  century  pro- 
duced musicians  like  Mendelssohn,  Meyerbeer,  Offen- 
bach, Goldmark,  Joseph  Joachim  ;  poets  like  Heine  ; 
painters  like  Max  Liebermann,  we  see  the  falsity  of  such 
an  assertion.  We  must  always  remember  that  German 
Jews  are  only  1  per  cent,  of  the  Christians  in  number, 
so  that,  in  proportion,  German  Christians  should  have 
produced  100  to  every  one  of  these  Jewish  artists. 
We  doubt  if  they  could  show  this  result.  It  is  easy 
enough,  especially  in  anti-Semitic  countries,  to  disparage 
Jewish  artists  and  their  work.  But  whoever  takes  an 
unprejudiced  view,  and  remembers  besides,  the  Jewish 


220  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

non-German  artists,  (Josef  Israels,  Antokolski,  Pissaro, 
Rubinstein)  must  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Jews 
of  Western  Europe  have,  in  proportion  to  their  numbers, 
produced  a  great  number  of  gifted  artists.  They  are 
likewise  well  represented  in  poetry  and  sculpture,  and 
it  is  only  in  architecture  that  so  far  they  do  not  seem  to 
have  excelled.  The  artistic  achievements  of  the  Jews 
are  the  more  remarkable,  as  Zollschan  has  rightly 
pointed  out  in  his  book,  considering  that  the  callings 
open  to  Jews  hitherto  have  not  been  such  as  to  further 
any  artistic  genius  ;  they  were  concentrated  in  trade 
and  commerce,  and  had  a  hard  struggle  for  existence. 
The  qualities  needed  for  success  were  sharpness  and 
dexterity,  clearness  of  mind,  and  a  quick  grasp  of  things, 
in  addition  to  a  habitual  and  shallow  superficiality  ; 
most  of  which  qualities  do  not  lead  to  profundity  of 
realisation  of  the  inner  meaning  of  things.  It  is  the 
best  proof  of  the  spiritual  gifts  of  the  Jews  that  in  spite 
of  these  unfavourable  outward  conditions  they  still 
produce  men  of  leading  in  Art  and  Literature. 

D.  The  Jews  and  Ethics. 

It  has  been  said  that  Jews  are  inferior  in  ethical 
qualities,  in  morals  and  character.  Is  this  true  ?  We 
can  scarcely  tell  from  the  individual  case  ;  it  is  only 
by  taking  the  people  in  the  mass  that  we  can  reach  any 
objective  judgment.  Such  a  survey  can  be  made  by 
studying  criminal  statistics.  The  criminality  of  the 
Jews  has  been  the  subject  of  much  investigation  x  of 

1  Compare  my  treatise,  Criminality  of  Christians  and  Jews  in 
Germany,  1 899-1902  ;  also  Blau,  The  Criminality  of  Jews  in  Germany 
during  the  years  1903-1906  ;  v.  Liszt,  The  Problem  of  Jewish  Crimi- 
nality ;  Wassermann,  Profession,  Religion  and  Crime,  Munich,  1907  ; 
Thon,  Criminality  of  the  Christians  and  Jews  of  Austria. 


RACE  VALUE  OF  THE  JEWS  221 

late  years,  and  the  general  conclusion  is  this,  that 
the  criminality  of  the  Jews  is  different  from,  but  in 
no  way  greater  than  that  of  Christians.  Speaking 
generally  we  may  say  that  Christians  have  a  pre- 
ponderance in  crimes  of  violence  and  brutality,  Jews 
in  crimes  of  fraudulence  and  deceit.  The  table  on 
pp.  222  and  223  shows  the  comparative  criminality  of 
Germany,  Austria-Hungary  and  the  Netherlands.  The 
figures  for  Germany  are  those  of  the  years  1903-1906, 
for  Austria  of  1898-1902,  for  Hungary  of  1904,  for  the 
Netherlands  of  1902. 

An  analysis  of  the  figures  shows  that  the  differences 
of  criminality  between  Jews  and  non-Jews  is  due  solely 
to  difference  in  social  conditions,  to  the  greater  pros- 
perity and  higher  education  of  the  Jews,  their  re- 
stricted participation  in  agriculture,  their  concentration 
in  trade  and  industry,  and  in  the  large  towns  ;  and 
that  there  is  here  no  question  of  racial  differences  : 
unless,  indeed,  we  attribute  the  prevalence  of  alco- 
holism among  Christians  (which  is  responsible  for  so 
many  crimes  of  violence)  and  of  greater  cunning  among 
the  Jews  (which  facilitates  fraud)  to  dispositions  of  race. 
The  more  one  studies  the  question,  and  investigates  the 
causes  of  crime,  the  more  clear  does  it  become  that  thosej 
who  would  account  for  the  differences  between  Jewish 
and  Christian  criminality  by  inborn  qualities  of  race 
are  deceiving  themselves.  If  one  goes  to  the  root  of 
things,  one  finds  that  social  conditions  are  everywhere 
responsible  for  differences  in  criminality.  This  is  quite 
apart  from  the  question  raised  by  Lombroso  and  his 
school  as  to  whether  some  men  are  born  criminals  or 
not.  The  "  delinquente  nolo  "  of  Lombroso  is  not  a  man 
who  resorts  to  breaches  of  the  peace,  stealing,  forgery, 
or  inflicting  bodily  harm,  i.e.  to  the  crimes  which  claim 


222 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


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224  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

the  greatest  number  of  criminals  in  the  present  day  ; 
he  is  rather  a  man  who  is  devoid  of  any  feeling  of  re- 
straint, who  gives  full  rein  to  his  passions,  and  does 
not  shrink  either  from  sexual  immorality,  robbery  or 
murder.  Such  men  may  exist,  but  they  are  as  rare 
among  criminals  as  are  the  insane  among  the  sane. 
Their  numbers  are  so  small  that  they  do  not  count  in  a 
comparison  of  criminality.  It  would  be  too  absurd  to 
attribute  those  delinquencies  in  which  Jews  are  more 
strongly  represented  than  Christians  (these  are  in  Ger- 
many, usury,  bankruptcy,  failures  in  business,  falsi- 
fication of  documents,  evasion  of  military  service,  fraud 
and  libel)  to  inborn  criminal  disposition.  They  are  the 
results  of  recent  changes  in  social  life,  and  it  would  be 
as  unreasonable  to  impute  a  propensity  to  usury  and 
bankruptcy  to  the  Jewish  babe,  as  it  would  be  to  impute 
to  the  Christian  child  a  natural  inclination  to  damage 
property  and  commit  breaches  of  the  peace. 

If  we  examine  the  offences  (usury,  misappropriation, 
bankruptcy,  infringement  of  the  law  of  Sunday  closing, 
offences  against  the  law  of  copyright)  for  which  Jews 
were  convicted  seven  times  as  often  as  Christians, 
we  find  that  the  offences  are  directly  traceable  to 
the  business  or  profession  of  the  offender.  When 
we  compare,  as  we  have  tried  to  do  in  the  accom- 
panying table,  the  proportion  of  Jews  in  certain 
professions  with  their  corresponding  proportion  of 
offenders,  we  find  that  the  greater  criminality  of 
Jews  in  these  callings  is  explained  by  their  greater 
participation  therein. 

The  powerful  influence  of  economic  conditions  is 
most  strikingly  seen  in  Amsterdam,  where  the  Jews, 
unlike  the  Jews  of  other  countries,  are  guilty  of  less 
fraud  and  more  infliction  of  bodily  injury  than  the 


RACE  VALUE  OF  THE  JEWS 


225 


Profession  of  Offender. 

Proportion  of  Jews 

Offence. 

In 

Profession. 

Of 
Offenders. 

Usury      ----- 
Misappropriation     - 

Bankruptcy-      -      -      -\ 
Fraudulent  bankruptcy 
General  bankruptcy      -  > 
Infringement  of  the  law 
of  Sunday  closing,  etc. ) 

Offences   against  intel- 
lectual property  -      - 

Independent  -    -      - 

Financiers,  bankers, 

etc.      -      -      -     - 

Independent  trades- 
men and  business  J- 
men    -      -      -      - 

Authors,  journalists, 
private  scholars   - 

33-12 
33-12 

9-50 

7.48 

22.73 

17.I7 

r  13.10 

3-57 
i     4-7i 

V  n-33 
9.44 

Christians.  Why  is  this  ?  Because  the  great  majority 
of  the  Jews  of  Amsterdam  are  not  occupied  in  trade  but 
in  the  handicraft  of  diamond-cutting.  They  thus  have 
few  possibilities  and  temptations  to  defraud,  such  as 
trade  so  frequently  offers.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
workmen  are  less  educated  and  probably  more  addicted 
to  liquor  than  Jews  in  other  lands,  and  therefore  lose 
the  restraint  which  hinders  most  Jews  from  committing 
acts  of  violence. 

So  much  is  clear  :  criminal  statistics  cannot  prove 
the  relation  between  crime  and  race,  since  the  majority 
of  offences  have  only  become  criminal  in  recent  legal 
systems.  As  to  the  capital  crimes  (murder,  robbery, 
incendiarism,  offences  against  morality)  which  have 
been  punishable  in  all  ages,  if  one  would  impute  inborn 
criminality  to  their  perpetrators,  the  Jews  would  be 
found  to  have  very  few  such  born  criminals,  since  they 
have  always  been  far  more  immune  from  these  parti- 
cular crimes  than  the  Christians.  Similarly,  they  have 
in  proportion  to  their  numbers  fewer  culprits  altogether 


226  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

than  have  the  Christians.  Thus  any  inborn,  i.e.  racial 
moral  inferiority  is  completely  disproved  by  criminal 
statistics. 

In  social  and  public  life  the  Jews  are  often  charged 
with  being  presumptuous  and  wanting  in  tact.  This  is 
very  often  the  case  in  fact,  but  the  reason  is  not  to  be 
found  in  their  racial  qualities  but  in  the  unparalleled 
rapidity  of  their  social  and  economic  advance,  which 
naturally  gives  rise  to  this  parvenu  spirit.  It  is  not  so 
easy  to  get  accustomed  to  new  standards  of  life.  But 
this  is  only  a  transition  stage.  The  second  and  third 
generations  feel  at  home  in  their  new  surroundings,  and 
know  how  to  conduct  themselves  with  perfect  ease  and 
tact.  We  must  remember  too  that  much  that  gives 
offence  in  the  behaviour  of  the  Jews  does  so  only  because 
it  is  measured  by  the  standard  of  the  Christian  en- 
vironment. Thus,  in  England  and  North  Germany  the 
Jews  give  offence  by  their  temperamental  manner  of 
speaking  and  gesticulating,  because  it  is  the  habit  in 
these  countries  to  be  reserved  ;  whereas  the  English 
demeanour  is  by  no  means  to  the  taste  of  some  other 
nations,  such  as  those  of  South  Europe.  It  is  the  fate 
of  the  Jews  that  they  are  the  only  Mediterranean  people 
who  live  among  Northern  nations,  and  that  being  in  a 
small  minority  they  cannot  create  a  standard  for  them- 
selves, but  must  accept  and  be  judged  by  that  of  the 
majority. 

E.  The  value  of  the  Jewish  race. 

We  think  we  have  proved  sufficiently  what  we  set  out 
to  prove,  namely,  that  the  Jews  as  a  race  are  inferior 
neither  in  artistic  achievement  nor  in  moral  fibre.  We 
can  thus  accept  the  high  intellectuality  of  the  Jews 
without  reserve,  and  are  justified  in  desiring  to  preserve 


RACE  VALUE  OF  THE  JEWS  227 

this  high  human  type,  the  equal  of  any  race  of  mankind, 
as  a  separate  entity,  unmixed,  because  this  is  the  only 
possible  way  to  preserve  and  develop  the  race-character. 
Any  highly  cultivated  race  deteriorates  rapidly  when 
its  members  mate  with  a  less  cultivated  race,  and  the 
Jew  naturally  finds  his  equal  and  match  most  easily 
within  the  Jewish  people.  We  cannot  absolutely 
assert  that  the  mixture  of  Jews  with  other  races  in- 
variably produces  a  degenerate  posterity.  The  mixing 
of  diametrically  opposed  races  does  indeed  almost  alwa}7s 
produce  bad  results,  the  difference  of  blood  between 
father  and  mother  giving  rise  to  an  unbalanced  off- 
spring, devoid  of  character  and  energy.  The  racial 
difference  between  Jews  and  Europeans  is  not  great 
enough  to  warrant  an  unfavourable  prognostic  as  to  the 
fruits  of  a  mixed  marriage.  The  few  investigations 
which  have  been  made  into  the  physical  and  mental 
qualities  of  the  children  of  mixed  marriages  have  not 
led  to  any  definite  conclusion  in  this  matter,  though 
the  assertion  that  mixed  marriages  between  Jews  and 
Christians  are  less  prolific  than  others  seems  likely  to 
be  confirmed  by  statistics.  This  might  be  a  sign  that 
mixed  marriages  are  not  conducive  to  the  begetting  of 
offspring,  though  it  would  not  necessarily  follow  that 
the  children  themselves  would  be  physically  and 
mentally  weaker. 

It  is  certain,  however,  that  by  intermarriage  the  race- 
character  is  lost,  and  that  descendants  of  a  mixed 
marriage  are  not  likely  to  have  any  remarkable  gifts. 
A  very  gifted  Jewish  couple  may  confidently  look  for- 
ward to  finding  their  talents  reproduced  and  intensified 
in  their  children.  But  the  same  result  cannot  be  antici- 
pated from  a  mixed  marriage  where  racial  discre- 
pancies exist  between  the  father  and  mother.     The  child 


228  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

naturally  inherits  the  qualities  both  of  the  father  and 
mother,  but  these  qualities,  instead  of  being  intensified, 
will  be  weaker  in  the  child.  As  a  general  rule,  the  child 
is  not  distinctively  of  either  race,  and  its  gifts  will  not 
be  above  the  average. 

Intermarriage  being  clearly  detrimental  to  the  pre- 
servation of  the  high  qualities  of  the  race,  it  follows  that 
.  it  is  necessary  to  try  and  prevent  it  and  to  preserve 
.  Jewish  separatism.  The  only  possible  way  is  to  put  a 
stop  not  to  intermarriage  alone,  but  to  the  whole  process 
of  assimilation,  which  begins  in  denationalisation  and 
ends  in  intermarriage.  To  oppose  intermarriage  alone 
would  be  acting  like  the  quack  who  tries  to  cure  the 
excrescences  without  getting  to  the  root  of  the  disease. 
Once  the  process  of  assimilation  has  commenced  and 
has  progressed  as  far  as  denationalisation,  i.e.  extinction 
of  all  Jewish  individuality,  the  complete  assimilation 
and  absorption  of  the  Jews  becomes  inevitable.  The 
"  de-Judaised  "  Jew  finds  no  support  in  Judaism,  he 
hovers  in  the  air,  as  it  were,  and  eventually  takes  refuge 
in  Christianity,  which,  as  the  ruling  religion,  naturally 
exerts  the  greatest  attraction.  Jewish  individuality 
and  culture,  and  finally  the  custodian  of  that  culture, 
the  Jew  himself,  all  become  destroyed  by  assimilation, 
and  the  Jewish  race  disappears  like  a  drop  in  the  ocean 
of  Christian  blood.  The  preservation  of  the  Jew  as  a 
high  type  of  human  culture  depends  upon  the  cessation 
of  the  process  of  denationalisation,  and  means  in 
practice  a  constant  struggle  against  assimilation. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

CULTURAL  VALUE  OF  THE  JEWS. 

A.  Race  and  culture. 

We  have  already  seen  that  a  nation's  racial  and 
cultural  value  are  its  justification  for  a  separate  exist- 
ence. We  have  further  seen  that  the  condition  as  to 
race  value  is  fulfilled  by  the  Jews.  Can  they  also  show 
a  similar  cultural  value  ?  It  would  be  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  high  culture  would  be  a  natural  adjunct 
of  a  high  race,  since  race  is  the  soil  from  which  culture 
springs.  High  racial  endowment  is  indeed  a  necessary 
condition  for  culture,  but  it  is  not  the  only  condition  ; 
it  must  go  hand  in  hand  with  the  external  advantages 
of  economic  and  political  prosperity.  It  is  differences 
in  these  external  circumstances  which  explain  the 
different  grades  of  culture  attained  by  the  same  race  at 
different  periods  and  in  different  countries.  The  same 
Arabs  who  developed  such  a  high  type  of  civilisation  out- 
side Arabia  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  were,  some 
few  centuries  before,  as  they  are  to-day  in  the  deserts 
of  Arabia,  nomad  tribes  of  low  standing.  The  native 
American  races  of  Mexico  and  Peru  showed  an  advanced 
state  of  civilisation  in  agricultural  matters  at  the  time 
of  the  discovery  of  America,  while  in  other  districts 
they  were  completely  uncivilised,  and  relied  on  the 
chase  as  their  chief  means  of  subsistence.  Nations 
such  as  the  Persians  and  Greeks,  under  the  stress  of 


230  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

political  oppression  and  economic  distress,  fell  from  the 
cultural  eminence  they  had  previously  attained.  These 
few  examples  will  suffice  to  show  the  influence  of 
external  conditions  on  culture. 

What  is  culture,  and  how  can  its  value  be  estimated  ? 

Culture  is  not  merely  science  and  art,  a  high  degree 
of  technical  development,  a  refined  mode  of  life,  or 
lofty  conceptions  of  morality,  but  the  sum  total  of  all 
those  spiritual  possessions  which  fit  men  for  life  in 
association  with  their  compatriots  and  endow  them 
with  poise  and  intellectual  perspective.  Greek  culture, 
although  as  regards  science  and  technical  development 
far  below  that  of  modern  Europe,  was  yet  its  equal  in 
another  sense,  because  it  gave  to  the  Greeks  a  social 
perception,  a  national  spirit,  and  a  uniform  compre- 
hension of  history. 

The  union  of  rich  racial  endowment  with  favourable 
external  conditions  produces  the  highest  culture,  but 
like  an  organic  structure,  it  requires  a  certain  time  for 
growth  and  development.  If  it  is  to  develop  to  the  full 
many  generations  must  contribute  to  it  the  results  of 
their  experiences.  The  gradual  evolution  of  ethical 
and  social  ideas  within  a  nation  is  a  process  which 
requires  hundreds  of  years  for  its  accomplishment. 

It  will  be  understood  from  this  that  a  high  culture 
has  an  independent  value  of  its  own,  even  with  a  highly 
endowed  race — just  as  the  value  of  an  individual  does 
not  depend  solely  on  his  natural  gifts  (which  give  him 
the  means  of  acquiring  knowledge),  but  on  his  actual 
acquirement  and  assimilation  of  that  knowledge.  To 
take  another  example  :  acquired  culture  is  to  the  race 
what  money  is  to  the  merchant — he  has  acquired  it 
through  the  exercise  of  his  business  capacity,  and 
thereafter  it  becomes  his  capital. 


CULTURAL  VALUE  OF  THE  JEWS   231 

B.  The  value  of  modern  Jewish  culture. 

Jewish  culture  to-day  is  confined  to  the  East  Euro- 
pean Jews.  The  Jews  of  Western  Europe  have  given 
up  their  Jewish  culture  and  have  become  English- 
men, Germans,  Frenchmen  and  so  forth.  They  accom- 
plish great  things  in  the  various  intellectual  and  artistic 
spheres  of  these  countries,  and  do  much  to  further  their 
development,  but  they  are  lost  to  Jewish  culture.  This 
is  the  greater  pity,  since  they  would  probably  achieve 
still  greater  things  in  the  realms  of  Jewry,  where  all 
their  racial  gifts  would  be  called  into  play  without  let 
or  hindrance  ;  whereas  in  the  countries  of  their  adoption 
they  are  bound  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  life  and 
thought  of  the  racial  majority,  which  is  in  many  cases 
quite  foreign  to  them. 

The  present  Jewish  culture,  i.e.  the  culture  of  the 
East  European  Jews,  is  the  same  as  that  possessed  by 
the  Jews  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries, 
which  they  took  with  them  to  the  isolation  of  the 
Ghettos.  At  that  time  it  was  similar  in  character  to 
that  of  the  other  European  nations,  and  scholasticism 
was  its  dominating  spirit.  But  whereas  Christian 
civilisation  was  enormously  enriched  during  the  follow- 
ing centuries  of  the  Renaissance  by  geographical  dis- 
coveries and  by  the  development  of  natural  sciences, 
and  progressed  by  leaps  and  bounds,  the  Jews  in  their 
Ghettos  lived  through  five  hundred  years  without  any 
impulse  from  outside,  and  had  to  subsist  on  what  they 
had  when  they  entered  the  Ghettos.  This  spiritual 
inbreeding  impoverished  their  civilisation,  especially 
in  comparison  with  the  gigantic  contemporary  progress 
of  the  Christians.  The  study  of  the  Talmud,  which 
was  and  still  is  with  the  "  fromm  "  (pious)  Jew  of  East 


232  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

Europe  the  beginning  and  end  of  knowledge,  does 
indeed  sharpen  the  intellect,  but  the  education  it  gives 
is  not  to  be  compared  with  modern  European  education. 
The  plastic  arts  are  absent.  Powers  of  self-cultivation, 
and  the  desire  for  the  refinements  of  life,  are  not  even 
awakened.  The  love  of  nature,  which  Christianity  has 
been  slowly  acquiring  ever  since  the  Renaissance,  is 
almost  unknown.  The  literature  of  the  European 
nations  is  ignored,  and  science  is  at  a  very  primitive 
stage.  In  short,  the  Jews'  culture  lacks  all  that  the 
European  nations — each  striving  to  outdo  the  other,  and 
favoured  by  happy  discoveries  and  inventions — have 
added  to  their  culture  during  the  last  five  hundred  years. 

Hence  an  inevitable  discrepancy  between  conception 
and  realisation.  In  wealth  of  ideas  the  Jewish  can 
bear  comparison  with  any  European  civilisation.  Its 
conception  of  life  is  grand  in  its  comprehensiveness  ; 
and  the  outlook  of  the  East  European  Jew,  who  sees 
the  controlling  hand  of  a  righteous  God  in  all  things, 
is  much  finer  in  its  harmony  and  its  strong  ethical  sense 
than  the  world-philosophy  of  many  an  "  enlightened  " 
Jew,  who  looks  down  compassionately  on  East  European 
Judaism.  The  perfect  Talmud  scholar,  notwithstand- 
ing his  ignorance  of  modern  science  and  learning,  can 
hold  his  own  with  the  most  cultured  as  a  type  of  the 
highly  educated  man. 

In  the  sphere  of  ethics  Jewish  civilisation  can  also 
bear  comparison  with  that  of  any  European  people. 
The  well-known  moderation  of  the  East  European  Jews, 
their  aversion  to  violence  and  lust,  their  sympathy  for 
all  human  sorrow,  their  earnestness,  and  eagerness  to 
work,  their  respect  for  the  law,  the  close  tie  between 
parents  and  children,  the  absence  of  class  distinctions, 
are  its  principal  features,  and  are  of  the  greatest  value 


CULTURAL  VALUE  OF  THE  JEWS   233 

in  communal  life.  Their  religious  fervour,  which  is  the 
outstanding  characteristic  of  Eastern  Jewish  culture, 
shows  their  capacity  for  ignoring  worldly  interests  ;  and 
under  other  circumstances  this  idealism  takes  the  form 
of  enthusiasm  for  other  great  causes,  as  is  clearly  shown 
by  the  participation  of  the  Jewish  youth  in  the  move- 
ment for  Russian  freedom. 

But  in  comprehensiveness,  i.e.  in  content  of  secular 
knowledge,  Jewish  culture  compared  with  that  of 
Europe,  is  undeniably  backward.  It  shares  the  fate  of 
all  isolated  cultures  :  that  of  China,  for  example,  which 
though  in  itself  among  the  most  highly  developed,  by 
cutting  itself  off  from  any  other  contemporary  learning 
and  science,  has  been  left  behind  by  that  of  Europe. 
The  era  of  isolated  centres  of  light,  such  as  existed  in 
olden  times,  is  over  ;  such  centres  cannot  compete  with 
European  civilisation,  which  consists  of  the  combined 
civilisations  of  all  the  European  peoples  working  to- 
gether, and  the  interplay  of  one  with  the  other.  One 
single  people  cannot  possibly  attain  as  comprehensive 
an  excellence  in  all  provinces  of  thought  and  action  as 
can  all  the  nations  of  Europe  combined.  If,  for  instance, 
one  were  to  isolate  one  of  the  European  nations,  France 
or  Germany,  cutting  them  off  from  connection  with 
other  national  cultures,  we  should  see  a  repetition  of 
the  same  process  as  has  happened  to  the  Jews  ;  they 
would  fall  behind  the  other  nations  in  knowledge  and 
experiences.  They  might  still  reach  a  high  standard, 
but  it  would  be  as  "  empirically  backward  "  as  that  ol 
Jewish  culture  to-day. 

The  backwardness  of  Jewish  culture  is  easily  over- 
come. The  rapidity  with  which  the  Jews  of  Western 
and  Central  Europe  acquired  the  European  outlook  and 
produced  notable  men  like  Spinoza,   Disraeli,  Marx, 


234  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,  Heine,  Israels,  Heinrich  Hertz, 
in  all  spheres  of  learning  and  art,  is  proof  that  they  do 
not  remain  backward  for  long.  The  West  European 
Jews  indeed  have  completely  identified  themselves  with 
European  standards,  but  at  the  expense  of  their  own. 
That  there  is  no  need  for  this  we  see  from  the  Japanese, 
whose  culture,  though  of  a  high  type,  was  until  fifty 
years  ago  in  an  isolated  and  backward  condition :  yet 
they  were  able  to  adapt  the  most  advanced  European 
thought  to  their  own  needs,  and  while  remaining 
thoroughly  Japanese,  and  respecting  their  ancient 
culture,  they  are  to-day  able  to  compete  with  the 
European  nations  in  the  highest  spheres  of  learning, 
art  and  science. 

Like  the  Japanese,  the  Jews  must  adapt  modern 
culture  to  their  own,  so  that  they  may  combat  that  of 
Europe  on  its  own  ground  as  equal  antagonists.  But 
they  must  go  carefully  to  work,  lest  in  the  effort  to 
merge  the  two  together,  they  destroy  the  worth  of  the 
old.  The  result  of  the  combination  should  be  a  Jewish 
civilisation  with  a  real  value  of  its  own,  whereas  up  till 
now  the  wholesale  participation  of  Jews  in  modern 
thought  has  indeed  been  a  cure  for  the  backwardness  of 
their  culture,  but  one,  in  the  process  of  which,  that 
culture  has  tended  to  disappear  altogether. 

As  long  as  the  new  Jewish  culture  takes  that  of  the 
old  Ghetto  for  its  foundation  and  becomes  its  organic 
continuation  it  will  have  a  firm  basis.  But  if,  as  has 
'■  been  occasionally  attempted,  a  Jewish  culture  is  built 
up  without  this  foundation,  the  corner-stones  of  the 
new  edifice  being  taken  from  the  whole  variety  of 
possible  sources,  the  result  will  be  nothing  but  worthless 
talk.  A  civilisation  cannot  be  put  together  like  a 
mosaic  ;   it  can  only  grow  out  of  a  living  national  life, 


CULTURAL  VALUE  OF  THE  JEWS   235 

i.e.  in  this  case,  out  of  the  culture  of  the  East  European 
Jews.  This  means,  at  the  same  time,  that  the  pioneers 
of  the  new  culture  can  only  be  those  who  have  acquired 
the  old,  i.e.  the  East  European  Jews.  The  West  Euro- 
pean Jews,  with  individual  exceptions,  are  already  too 
denationalised  and  too  saturated  with  modernity  to  do 
anything  of  the  sort.  The  new  Jewish  culture  in  its 
early  stages  would  doubtless  fall  short  of  their  worldly 
standards,  and  would  therefore  fail  to  attract  them. 

C.  The  new  Jewish  culture  a  combination  of  Jewish 
tradition  with  modern  education. 
To  prove  whether  or  not  it  is  possible  for  the  East 
European  Jews  to  be  receptive  of  modern  secular  edu- 
cation and  still  maintain  the  positive  worth  of  their 
present  Jewish  standards,  we  must  first  show  why  the 
adoption  of  modern  education  has  hitherto  worked  such 
havoc  with  Jewish  tradition.  Three  reasons  present 
themselves  : 

1.  Modern  secular  education  is  at  bottom  anti- 
religious,  and  is  thus  in  indirect  opposition  to  the 
culture  of  the  East  European  Jews,  the  kernel  of  which 
is  religion  and  belief  in  God.  There  is  no  bridge  be- 
tween the  firm  belief  of  the  Russian  Jew  in  an  Almighty 
God,  in  His  active  intervention  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  in  the  power  of  prayer,  and  the  modern  con- 
ception of  life  founded  on  natural  science  and  evolu- 
tionary theories. 

2.  Modern  education  is  imparted  to  the  East  Euro- 
pean Jew  not  in  his  own  (Yiddish)  but  in  a  foreign 
language.  At  every  step,  therefore,  the  fact  that  his 
education  is  the  product  of  a  foreign  people  is  brought 
home  to  him.  His  soul  is  divided  between  Jewish 
tradition,  imparted  to  him  either  in  Yiddish  or  Hebrew, 


236  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

and  secular  knowledge,  which  comes  to  him  in  either  the 
German,  Russian  or  Polish  language  in  the  guise  of 
German,  Russian  or  Polish  culture.  Of  the  two,  secular 
education,  with  its  obvious  superiorities  of  learning  and 
science,  and  the  advantages  it  offers  in  economic  life, 
nearly  always  proves  the  stronger  influence.  The  Jew 
applies  himself  to  it,  and  contempt  for  the  Jewish 
language  and  tradition  is  the  natural  consequence. 

3.  The  East  European  Jew  receives  this  secular 
education  in  Christian  schools  in  which  naturally  no 
attention  is  paid  to  the  traditions  of  the  Jewish  home, 
the  Jewish  pupil  being  plunged  into  an  absolutely 
foreign  milieu.  The  child  is,  as  it  were,  uprooted  from 
Jewish  tradition,  and  leaves  the  school  totally  estranged 
from  Judaism. 

Of  these  causes,  the  first — the  schism  between  Jewish 
religion  and  the  teachings  of  natural  science — cannot 
be  evaded.  The  body  of  the  Jewish  beliefs  will  no 
doubt  suffer  many  blows  from  the  spread  of  scientific 
knowledge.  But  the  Jews  will  here  fare  no  differently 
from  all  the  nations  who  have  been  touched  by  the 
breath  of  science.  In  France,  England,  Italy,  Germany, 
no  less  than  in  the  United  States  and  Japan,  religion 
has  had  to  resign  its  sovereign  power,  and  be  content 
with  what  science  has  left  it.  The  Jewish  religion  will 
fare  no  worse  than  the  Christian — it  will  fare  better, 
because  it  has  fewer  dogmas,  and  because  its  funda- 
mental dogma,  belief  in  one  God,  is  not  irreconcilable 
with  the  Monism  of  natural  science.  Perhaps  this  may 
one  day  develop  into  a  synthesis  which  will  unite  all  the 
world.  In  any  event,  by  using  a  little  discretion  it  is 
quite  possible  for  Jewish  children  to  retain,  side  by  side 
with  modern  education,  a  feeling  of  respect  for  their 
religion,  as  the  greatest  and  most  pregnant  expression 


CULTURAL  VALUE  OF  THE  JEWS   237 

of  the  Jewish  genius.  It  is  quite  reasonable  that  they 
should  at  the  same  time  preserve  many  of  the  cere- 
monials as  symbols  of  their  faith. 

This  brings  us  to  the  second  cause  of  the  destruction 
of  Jewish  culture,  namely,  the  disturbing  influence  of 
foreign  languages  and  non- Jewish  schools.  This  diffi- 
culty might  be  removed  by  giving  Jewish  children  a 
modern  education,  not  as  now  in  a  strange  language 
and  in  Christian  schools,  but  in  Jewish  schools,  in  direct 
connection  with  Jewish  tradition  and  in  their  own 
language.  This  demand  for  their  own  schools  and  their 
own  language  is  an  essential  condition  for  a  satisfactory 
combination  of  Jewish  tradition  with  modern  culture. 

A  peculiar  language  and  separate  schools  are  only 
possible  where  Jews  live  in  the  closest  connection  with 
one  another.  For  this  the  primary  condition  of  every 
constitutional  nation  must  be  fulfilled  :  a  fixed  territory 
and  a  self-contained  national  existence.  Previously 
the  Jews  of  East  Europe  had  at  least  the  semblance  of 
these  conditions  ;  the  boundaries  of  the  Ghettos  con- 
fined them  to  one  spot,  and  their  special  privileges  as 
money-lenders  and — in  Poland — also  as  artisans,  made 
them  to  a  certain  extent  independent  of  the  Christians  ; 
they  relied  as  little  on  the  Christians  as  did  the  latter  on 
the  Jews.  With  the  loss  of  these  privileges  things  have 
changed  for  the  Jews  ;  they  now  take  their  share  in  the 
open  market,  where,  surrounded  by  Christian  com- 
petitors, they  have  to  rely  on  and  to  cater  for  non- 
Jewish  customers.  This  smooths  the  way  to  assimila- 
tion. The  only  possible  preventive  is  for  the  Jews, 
who  to-day  are  mainly  middlemen  between  the  non- 
Jewish  producer  and  the  non- Jewish  consumer,  and 
thus  dependent  upon  both,  to  create  an  economic  life 
of  their  own,  and  to  apply  themselves  to  all  callings,  and 


238  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

more  particularly  to  agriculture.  Here  the  Jews  would 
not  only  be  the  sellers  of  wares,  but  would  be  both 
producer  and  consumer.  Without  some  such  change 
of  occupation,  and  without  local  segregation,  Jewish 
schools  where  the  Hebrew  language  prevails  will  not 
be  possible,  because  economic  life  necessitates  a 
different  education.  As  long  as  the  Jews  are  a  small 
minority  in  the  midst  of  a  great  non- Jewish  majority, 
and  remain  economically  dependent  on  non- Jews,  so 
long  will  they  be  forced  by  circumstances  to  acquire 
the  language  and  customs  of  their  environment ;  and 
even  if  Jewish  schools  should  be  able  to  maintain 
themselves,  any  ideas  they  may  have  implanted  will  be 
destroyed  in  later  life.  We  have  an  example  before  us 
in  the  young  men  of  East  Europe  who,  educated  in 
Jewish  schools,  and  good  Jews  enough  when  they 
arrive  in  England  or  America,  invariably  fall  a  prey 
to  assimilation  as  soon  as  they  leave  the  Jewish  quarters 
of  the  cities  and  earn  their  living  outside.  Having 
shown  that  four  conditions  are  essential  for  the  further- 
ance of  Jewish  culture,  namely  : 

i.  Jewish  schools, 

I  2.  An  self-contained  economical  life, 

|  3.  A  common  language, 

I  4.  Local  segregation. 

the  question  presents  itself  as  to  how  and  where  these 
conditions  can  be  fulfilled.  The  problem  of  the  schools 
is  the  easiest  to  solve.  When  the  three  other  conditions 
are  fulfilled,  the  schools  will  come  of  themselves,  because 
they  will  be  the  only  possible  kind.  Everything  de- 
pends, therefore,  on  the  possibility  of  fulfilling  the  three 
last  conditions.  We  propose  to  discuss  this  possibility 
in  the  three  following  chapters. 


SECTION   V. 
THE  AIMS  OF  JEWISH  NATIONALISM. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

CREATION   OF   A   SELF-CONTAINED   JEWISH 
ECONOMIC  LIFE  BY  A  RETURN  TO  AGRICULTURE. 

A.  The  importance  of  agricultural  occupation  for  a 
community  of  Jews. 
If  the  Jews  are  to  live  together  in  large  numbers  they 
must  be  represented  in  every  calling,  and  more  parti- 
cularly in  agriculture.  So  long  as  the  Jews  remain  in 
the  spheres  of  labour  in  which  we  find  them  to-day,  and 
the  culture  of  the  soil,  the  most  important  branch  of 
domestic  economy,  remains  in  non-Jewish  hands,  so 
long  will  Jews  who  live  in  the  open  country  continue  to 
be  at  best  shopkeepers  and  carpenters,  and  be  forced  to 
throng  to  the  towns  where  trade  and  industry  offer  them 
a  means  of  livelihood.  An  isolated  Jewish  town  popula- 
tion, the  environment  of  which  is  exclusively  non- Jewish, 
would  be  the  worst  possible  foundation  for  a  Jewish 
co-operative  community.  A  town  population,  which 
relies  on  trade  and  commerce,  constantly  fluctuates,  is 
ever  ready  to  change  its  residence  when  another  locality 
offers  better  economic  prospects  ;  moreover,  as  we  have 
already  shown,  it  offers  exceptional  opportunities  for 
assimilation,  living  as  it  does  on  custom  (and  parti- 
cularly on  the  custom  of  the  non- Jewish  country  neigh- 
bourhood), and  therefore  being  forced  to  suit  the  wishes 
of  its  customers.     The  farmer  who  lives  on  the  produce 

Q 


242  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

of  his  field  is  the  only  thoroughly  settled  man,  his 
modest  needs  and  his  independence  enabling  him  to 
withstand  assimilation  and  survive  crises  which  work 
havoc  with  those  engaged  in  business.  A  true  love  of 
home,  a  feeling  of  being  part  of  the  soil,  only  takes  root 
in  a  people  which  has  by  its  own  toil  drawn  its  suste- 
nance out  of  the  earth.  A  settled  Jewish  community  can 
only  exist  where  there  are  Jewish  farmers.  There  only 
the  springs  of  nature,  which  were  sealed  up  in  the  Jews 
of  the  Ghetto,  will  begin  to  flow  anew. 

B.  Small  participation  of  Jews  in  agriculture. 

It  is  a  vexed  question  whether  the  Jews,  who  during 
the  existence  of  the  Jewish  kingdom  were  undoubtedly 
an  agricultural  people,  remained  so  during  the  first 
centuries  of  the  dispersion  ;  but  it  is  certain  that  ever 
since  the  Middle  Ages  they  have  ceased  to  be  farmers. 
In  the  whole  of  Western  Europe,  in  England,  France, 
Italy  and  Holland,  we  might  search  in  vain  for  Jewish 
farmers.  In  Germany — by  the  census  of  1907—  among 
292,862  professing  Jews,  3,746  were  engaged  in  agri- 
cultural occupations  (horticulture,  forestry,  cattle 
raising,  fishing)  ;  thus,  of  Jews,  1.3  per  cent,  engaged 
in  agriculture  as  against  35.5  per  cent,  of  Christians. 
And  even  these  few  Jews  with  very  few  exceptions  live, 
not  on  the  produce  of  their  agricultural  labour,  but  as 
landowners  and  lessors,  or  as  participators  in  industrial 
enterprises  in  connection  with  agriculture. 

In  Austria  the  statistics  of  1900  give  the  relatively 
high  number  of  139,810  Jews,  i.e.  11.4  per  cent,  engaged 
in  agriculture  and  forestry,  as  against  54.4  per  cent,  of 
the  Christians.  But  these  figures  should  not  deceive 
us  into  thinking  that  there  is  really  a  Jewish  peasant 
class  in  Austria.     There  is  no  such  thing.     In  Galicia 


A  SELF-CONTAINED  JEWISH  LIFE        243 

and  Bukovina  it  is  indeed  not  uncommon  for  a  Jew  to 
possess  a  cow  or  occasionally  a  large  stock  of  cattle  ;  but 
in  my  long  journeys  in  Galicia  I  never  met  a  genuine 
Jewish  peasant.  On  the  other  hand,  Jewish  land- 
lords, particularly  large  landowners,  are  comparatively 
numerous  in  Galicia.  Of  the  entire  "  landtaflig " 
ground  of  Galicia  (i.e.  property  which  was  originally 
manor  land,  and  still  enjoys  certain  legally  assured 
privileges),  which  in  1902  amounted  to  7,204,076  acres 
or  37.2  per  cent,  of  the  total  area  of  Galicia,  744,998 
acres  =  10.34  Per  cent.,  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Jews, 
which  gives  about  the  same  proportion  as  the  Jewish 
population  is  to  the  Galician  (11.09  Per  cent.).  The 
Jews  who  possess  "  landtaflig  "  estates,  and  are  thus 
among  the  large  landowners,  manage  the  land  in  most 
cases  themselves.  The  small  Jewish  landowners,  on 
the  contrary,  seek  only  to  let  it  out  and  devote  them- 
selves to  trade.  At  the  same  time,  many  Jews  are  to 
be  found  among  Galician  agricultural  labourers. 

The  conditions  in  Hungary  and  Roumania  are  similar. 
In  the  latter  country  the  Jews  manage  numerous  large 
estates  as  lessees  (they  are  prevented  by  law  from 
becoming  landowners).  In  Roumania  in  1908  of  the 
3,332  lessees  who  owned  estates  of  over  120  acres,  472  = 
14.2  per  cent.,  were  Jews,  and  5>765>338  acres  =  18.87 
per  cent,  of  the  entire  leasehold  land,  was  in  their 
hands.  These  Jews  are  not  farmers,  but  agricultural 
employers;  they  do  not  till  the  soil  with  their  own 
hands,  but  have  it  worked  by  others — sub-tenants, 
hired  labourers,  etc. 

C.  Results  of  Jewish  agricultural  colonisation  hitherto. 

If  we  wish  to  find  Jewish  farmers  in  Europe  we  must 
go  to  Russia.     The  existence  of  these  farmers  is  due, 


244  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

however,  not  to  the  voluntary  return  of  the  Jews  to 
the  land,  but  to  a  colonising  enterprise  of  the  Russian 
Government.  In  1806  Alexander  I.  issued  a  decree  by 
which  Jews  with  not  less  than  £40  capital  who  were 
willing  to  be  farmers  were  promised  their  own  piece  of 
ground.  Applications  flowed  in,  so  that  soon  after  the 
issue  of  the  decree  nine  colonies  were  founded  in  the 
government  province  of  Cherson.  The  colonies  did  not 
prosper,  however,  and  would  probably  have  disappeared 
altogether  if  Nicholas  I.  had  not  come  to  the  rescue.  In 
1836  this  Czar  took  up  the  project  of  his  predecessor, 
and,  by  promises  of  special  privileges,  induced  many 
new  colonists  to  settle  in  Cherson,  with  the  result  that 
the  number  of  colonising  families  rose  rapidly  from  957 
to  over  2,000.  The  privileges  they  now  enjoyed 
ameliorated  their  condition,  and  in  1842  four  more 
colonies  were  founded  in  Cherson.  In  1846  four  new 
colonies  were  established  in  the  government  of  Ekater- 
inoslav,  and  to-day  we  find  colonies  in  almost  every 
governmental  department  of  the  Pale  of  Settlement.1 
In  1898  and  1899  the  Jewish  Colonisation  Association 
instituted  and  published  a  report  of  these  Jewish  agri- 
cultural colonies.  We  extract  the  following  table,  from 
which  we  see  that  in  thirteen  governments  there  were 
301  Jewish  settlements,  consisting  of  10,721  families, 
and  a  total  population  of  68,959  souls,  occupying  an 
area  of  100,107  desjatins  (about  275,000  acres).  This 
population  includes  artisans  and  small  traders  who 
possess  no  land,  the  number  of  those  who  possess  land 
being  about  58,881  souls. 

The  land  in  the  colonies  is  mostly  the  property  of  the 
State,  and  is  held  by  the  colonists  as  an  inheritance  from 

1  An  historical  account  of  the  Colonisation  is  given  in  a  book  by 
Julius  Elk,  The  Jewish  Colonies  in  Russia  (Frankfort-a.-M.,  1886). 


A  SELF-CONTAINED  JEWISH  LIFE        245 


JEWISH   AGRICULTURAL   COLONIES    IN    RUSSIA. 


Governmental  Department. 

Number  of 
Settlers. 

Number  of 
Families. 

Number  of 
Persons. 

Number 

of  desjatins 

occupied. 

Vilna, 

32 

372 

2,414 

4,392 

Witebsk,  - 

28 

192 

1.235 

1,914 

Grodno,    - 

M 

26l 

I,8ll 

3,585 

Kowno,     - 

15 

2l6 

1,604 

2,649 

Minsk, 

26 

885 

5.762 

6,601 

Mohilew,  - 

76 

824 

5,828 

5,343 

Wolhynien, 

18 

991 

5,003 

5,55i 

Kiev, 

23 

447 

3,221 

2,812 

Podolien, 

15 

652 

3,279 

2,191 

Tschernigow, 

4 

107 

652 

1,280 

Bessarabia, 

11 

1,024 

5,466 

3,300 

Cherson,   - 

22 

3,304 

24,295 

42,839 

Ekaterinoslav,  - 

17 

1,416 

8,389 

17,650 

Total, 

301 

10,721 

68,959 

100,107 

father  to  son  :  a  small  portion  of  it  is  the  property  of 
the  colonists  themselves  or  of  other  private  individuals. 
An  enquiry  into  the  divisions  of  land  held  by  the  Jewish 
Colonisation  Association  in  1897  discovered  that  of 
4,022  families  possessing  land  (29,634  souls) 

1,341  or  33.3  %  had  less  than  2 J  desjatins. 
996  or  24.8  %  had  2 J  to  5  desjatins. 
922  or  22.9  %  had  5  to  10  desjatins. 
527  or  13. 1  %  had  10  to  20  desjatins. 
236  or    5.9  %  had  more  than  20  desjatins. 

(1  desjatin  =  about  2 J  acres).  The  governments  of 
Cherson  and  Ekaterinoslav  are  not  included  in  these 
figures. 

The  colonists  do  not  all  work  their  own  fields  ;  a 
considerable  number  lease  them  out,  so  that  of  the 
4,022  families  possessing  land  of  their  own,  only  2,568 


246  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

are  actually  engaged  in  agriculture.  The  number  of 
Jewish  families  in  all  the  colonies  together  who  are 
really  engaged  in  agriculture  should  not  be  estimated 
at  more  than  5,000,  or  30,000  souls. 

Opinions  differ  greatly  as  to  the  economic  condition 
of  the  colonies  ;  the  truth  seems  to  be  that,  though 
not  yet  brilliantly  prosperous,  they  are  making  slow  pro- 
gress,1 particularly  since  they  started  tree  plantations 
in  addition  to  farming.  Outside  the  Jewish  colonies 
there  are  scattered  here  and  there  in  Russia,  Jews  who, 
though  not  properly  speaking  farmers,  are  interested 
in  branches  of  agriculture.  According  to  the  report 
of  the  J.C.A.  in  1899  there  were  11,894  Jews  engaged 
in  horticulture,  1,746  in  tobacco  plantation,  665  in 
vine  plantation,  177  in  bee-farming,  7,185  in  dairy 
work. 

Besides  the  Jewish  agricultural  colonies  in  Russia, 
which  are  already  over  a  hundred  years  old,  there  are 
Jewish  agricultural  settlements  in  the  United  States,  in 
the  Argentine  and  in  Palestine,  all  of  which  have  been 
founded  within  the  last  three  decades.  In  the  United 
States  there  are  a  number  of  Jewish  colonies  which 
sprang  up  after  the  year  1881  by  the  private  initiative 
of  immigrant  Russian  Jews,  but  which  have  since  either 
failed,  or  been  compelled  to  appeal  for  help  to  Jewish 
philanthropists  or  charitable  institutions.  The  most 
important  of  the  existing  colonies  are  Woodbine, 
Carmel,  Rosenhayn,  Alliance,  Hunderton,  all  in  the 
State  of  New  Jersey.  The  colonies — Woodbine  in 
particular — have  a  strong  industrial  character ;  one 
section  of  the  inhabitants  is  exclusively,  another  only 
partially  engaged  in  manufactures  and  workrooms  ; 
only  about  one-half  or  two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants 

1  This  was  the  view  of  the  Jewish  agronome  Oettinger  in  1909. 


A  SELF-CONTAINED  JEWISH  LIFE        247 

maintain  themselves  solely  on  agriculture,  which  takes 
the  form  of  wine,  fruit,  vegetable  and  dairy  produce. 
Outside  New  Jersey  there  are  some  small  Jewish  colonies 
and  a  considerable  number  of  individual  Jewish  farmers 
in  the  States  of  New  York  and  Connecticut,  and  in  the 
more  westerly  States,  notably  North  Dakota.  These 
farmers  are  not  much  engaged  in  farming  proper  ;  like 
the  Russian  Jews  outside  the  colonies  who  are  interested 
in  agriculture,  they  are  for  the  most  part  vegetable 
growers,  gardeners,  dairy  farmers  ;  and  their  products 
being  perishable  food-stuffs,  they  remain  in  close  con- 
nection with  their  market,  i.e.  the  towns.  In  1910  the 
Jewish  Agricultural  and  Industrial  Aid  Society  in  New 
York  estimated  the  number  of  agricultural  businesses 
in  Jewish  hands  at  2,984.  Of  these  656  were  in  the 
State  of  New  Jersey,  517  in  the  State  of  Connecticut, 
840  in  the  State  of  New  York,  240  in  North  Dakota, 
169  in  Massachusetts,  the  remainder  in  other  States. 
The  total  number  of  Jews  in  the  United  States  engaged 
one  way  and  another  in  agriculture  is  about  20,000  souls 
(including  their  families).  In  Canada  there  are  also 
four  Jewish  Agricultural  Colonies,  Hirsch  with  40, 
Qu'Appelle  with  about  180,  Oxbow  with  about  15,  and 
Bender  with  about  70  families. 

The  Argentine  colonies  owe  their  foundation  to  Baron 
de  Hirsch,  who  thought  to  solve  the  Jewish  question 
by  settling  Jews  as  farmers  and  workmen  in  countries 
outside  Europe,  a  plan  for  the  realisation  of  which  he 
founded  the  Jewish  Colonisation  Association  (J.C.A.) 
with  a  capital  of  about  £10,000,000.  The  first  Jewish 
colonies  in  the  Argentine  were  founded  by  this  Associa- 
tion in  the  early  nineties.  The  condition  of  the  colonies 
at  the  end  of  the  year  1908  is  shown  in  the  following 
table,  compiled  from  the  Rapport  de  V Administration 


248 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


Centrale   de  la   Jewish   Colonisation   Association   pour 
Vannee  1908  (Paris,  1909). 


Name  of  Colony. 

No.  of  Colonists. 

Not  Colonists. 

Total 
Population. 

Surface 

cultivated 

in  hectares 

(1  hectare 

=  2.4 

acres). 

Families 

Souls. 

Families 

Souls. 

Families 

Souls. 

Moisesville, 

Mauricio, 

Clara, 

San  Antonio, 

Lucienville, 

Baron  de 

Hirsch, 
Santa  Isabel, 

511 
317 
631 
151 

316 

143 
49 

2,770 
1,614 

3,477 

861 

1,767 

728 
275 

I2Q 
I70 
I98 

14 

203 

43 

1,040 

700 

I,o6l 

82 

1,232 

164 

640 
487 
829 
165 
519 

186 
49 

3,8lO 

2,314 

4,538 

943 

2,999 

892 
275 

10,840 

19,750 
19,690 

4,541 
16,550 

13,136 

Total,    - 

2,118 

11,492 

757 

4.279 

2,875 

15.771 

84.507 

The  colonies  are  composed  of  an  agricultural  popula- 
tion of  2,118  families  (11,492  souls)  to  which  we  must 
add  labourers,  tradesmen,  teachers  and  so  forth,  to  the 
number  of  about  4,000.  The  area  of  each  colony  is 
about  210,000  acres,  of  which  about  one-half  is  sown 
with  wheat,  and  the  other  with  flax,  oats,  maize  and 
lucerne.  There  were  about  109,376  head  of  cattle, 
37,975  horses  and  mules,  31,342  sheep.  In  almost 
all  the  colonies  cattle-rearing  and  dairy-work  play  a 
great  part  in  addition  to  the  actual  farming.  Economi- 
cally the  colonies  are  said  by  the  J.C.A.  to  be  in  satis- 
factory condition  :  it  appears,  however,  that  many 
colonists,  instead  of  working  their  own  land,  farm  it  out 
to  the  natives  to  cultivate,  the  land  having  greatly 
increased  in  value  since  the  opening  of  the  new  railway. 
The  J.C.A.  will  certainly  enlarge  its  work  of  colonis- 
ation in  the  Argentine.  It  has  already  made  large 
purchases  of  land  for  this  purpose  ;  the  total  amount 


A  SELF-CONTAINED  JEWISH  LIFE      249 

of  land  owned  by  it  in  the  Argentine  in  1908  was 
^277,325  acres.1 

The  Jewish  colonies  in  Palestine  have  been  founded 
within  the  last  three  decades  to  a  small  extent  by 
Palestine  enthusiasts  from  Russia,  but  chiefly  by 
systematic  colonisation  aided  by  the  munificence  of 
Baron  Edmond  de  Rothschild  and  with  the  funds 
entrusted  by  him  to  the  J.C.A.  These  colonies  have 
often  been  in  a  critical  position,  and  great  efforts  were 
needed  to  keep  them  above  water  ;  but  during  the  last 
five  years  their  condition  has  been  improving,  and  many 
colonies,  especially  those  which  cultivate  oranges  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Jaffa,  have  reached  a  state  of 
prosperity.  Besides  orange-growing,  vine  culture  is  a 
large  industry  in  the  Southern  Palestine  colonies,  and 
large  wine  cellars  have  been  built  for  the  purpose  in 
Rischon-le-Zion  and  Zichron  Jacob.  Of  late  the  culture 
of  olives,  almonds  and  cereals  is  becoming  increasingly 
popular,  the  chief  colonies  for  these  products  being 
those  in  North  Palestine  (Galilee) .  There  is  little  cattle- 
raising,  and  vegetable  produce  is  scarce.  There  are 
now  in  Palestine  altogether  about  thirty  Jewish  colonies 
with  an  area  of  about  75,000  acres,  and  an  agricultural 
population  of  about  1,000  families  (6,000  souls).  Be- 
sides these,  about  2,000  persons  live  in  the  colonies, 
not  engaged  in  agriculture,  such  as  labourers,  teachers, 
small  traders,  landlords  and  their  dependents, 

To  sum  up  :  about  5,000  Jewish  peasant-families 
have  been  established  by  the  Russian  Government 
during  the  last  hundred  years,  and  a  further  6,000-7,000 

1  With  the  Argentine  colonies  we  should  mention  the  Brazilian 
colony  Philippson,  also  under  the  direction  of  the  J.C.A.  At  the 
end  of  1908  it  numbered  42  colonist  families — 299  souls,  and  occupied 
an  area  of  13,338  acres,  of  which  about  10,000  acres  were  cultivated. 


250  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

families  have  been  settled  during  the  last  thirty  years 
by  Jewish  colonisation  societies  and  private  persons 
who  took  to  agriculture  on  their  own  initiative.  This 
brings  up  the  total  of  Jewish  agriculturist  families  in 
the  world  to-day  to  11,000-12,000.  Having  regard  to 
the  time  spent  and  the  enormous  means  at  the  disposal 
of  the  colonisation  societies,  this  result  can  hardly  be 
called  brilliant,  but  it  is  not  to  be  despised,  in  view  of 
all  the  difficulties  encountered.  These  were  particularly 
great  at  the  start.  Jewish  farmers  had  to  be  made  out 
of  men  who  for  generations  had  been  townspeople  and 
petty  traders ;  they  lacked  the  necessary  qualities, 
physical  strength,  rural  traditions,  technical  knowledge. 
To  these  difficulties  we  must  add  the  fact  that  the 
colonists  were  recruited  chiefly  from  the  poorest  of  the 
proletariat,  who  expected  by  colonisation  to  improve 
their  economic  condition.  Colonisation  offered  no 
attraction  to  Jews  of  means  who  were  happy  in  trade 
and  industry,  and  the  philanthropic  character,  which 
the  colonisation  assumed  in  the  last  three  decades,  re- 
sulted in  the  poorest  Jews  being  chosen,  by  preference, 
for  colonisation.  These  poor  Jews  becoming  suddenly 
possessed  of  land,  house  and  effects,  were  in  most  cases 
devoid  of  any  capacity  to  make  use  of  their  possessions, 
and  they  lacked  also  the  love  and  solicitude  which  the 
genuine  peasant  feels  for  the  home  he  has  won  inch  by 
inch  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow.  The  result  of  this 
physical  incapacity  was  that  only  a  fraction  of  the 
colonists  remained  on  the  land  ;  the  greater  number  fell 
away,  either  because  they  were  unable  or  unwilling  to  do 
the  hard  physical  work,  or  because  village  life  was 
uncongenial  to  them ;  or  perhaps  because  they  were 
so  utterly  lacking  in  agricultural  and  economic  know- 
ledge that  they  saw  no  prospect  of  making  a  living. 


A  SELF-CONTAINED  JEWISH  LIFE      251 

The  colonisation  societies  tried  to  make  good  this  de- 
ficiency in  knowledge  by  appointing  an  administrator 
whose  office  was  to  put  the  colonists  in  the  right  way  ; 
but  this  was  sending  Beelzebub  to  drive  out  Satan.  The 
colonists  were  indeed  protected  from  great  mistakes, 
but  they  thereby  lost  the  feeling  of  independence  and 
responsibility,  and  fell  into  the  habit  of  asking  help  and 
money  of  the  administrator  whenever  they  were  in 
trouble.  Instead  of  becoming  self-supporting  farmers, 
they  became  cadging  beggars.  The  administration 
system  has  since  been  given  up,  but  its  pernicious 
influence  is  still  felt,  especially  in  the  Rothschild 
colonies  in  Palestine.  In  the  place  of  administration, 
the  colonisation  societies,  especially  the  J.C.A.,  have 
adopted  the  system  of  settling  only  such  persons  who 
have  had  some  experience  in  agriculture,  either  as  agri- 
cultural labourers  or  as  sons  of  colonists,  and  who  are 
accustomed  to  rural  life.  This  system  works  better, 
and  the  percentage  of  unsuccessful  colonists  has  per- 
ceptibly decreased.  Thus  the  large  sums  of  money, 
expended  seemingly  without  result  by  the  colonisation 
societies,  have  borne  fruit  at  any  rate  in  the  second 
generation.  It  was  probably  necessary  that  money 
should  be  lavished.  If  the  means  and  good-will  had 
not  been  forthcoming  to  colonise  a  hundred  Jews  in 
order  to  win  ten  for  agriculture,  we  should  not  to-day 
have  had  these  ten  colonists  who  are  most  valuable  for 
the  furtherance  of  colonisation.  The  beginning  was 
difficult  and  expensive,  but  it  has  greatly  facilitated 
all  later  effort.  In  one  respect  the  work  of  colonisation 
has  come  to  a  dead  stop  ;  it  is  possible  to  find  people 
with  some  agricultural  knowledge  who  are  willing  to 
colonise,  but  impossible  to  find  any  with  capital.  Apart 
from  a  few  enthusiastic  Zionists,  the  only  applicants 


252  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

for  colonisation  are  people  of  no  means  whatsoever, 
whom  the  societies  have  to  provide  with  everything, 
down  to  the  smallest  article  necessary  for  their  settle- 
ment. The  effect  of  this  is  bad  in  two  senses  :  in  the 
first  place,  as  we  have  already  mentioned,  the  colonist 
lacks  the  necessary  care  and  solicitude  for  his  property  ; 
and  in  the  second  place  he  has  no  credit  basis  on  which 
to  fall  back  in  bad  times.  He  depends  entirely  upon 
the  pleasure  of  the  colonisation  society  ;  in  times  of 
adversity,  such  as  a  bad  harvest,  they  must  come  to  his 
help  or  he  may  be  ruined.  Such  a  state  of  affairs  is  not 
likely  to  develop  either  a  feeling  of  independence  and 
self-reliance,  or  any  intimate  connection  with  the  soil. 
The  colonist  knows  that  one  single  bad  harvest,  or  a 
cattle  epidemic,  would  be  sufficient  to  ruin  him  alto- 
gether ;  but  he  knows,  at  the  same  time,  that  he  has 
nothing  to  lose,  and  readily  leaves  hearth  and  home  in 
cases  when,  were  his  own  property  at  stake,  he  would 
undoubtedly  struggle  against  adversit}',  and  by  exerting 
all  his  energy,  at  least  make  an  effort  to  ward  off  the 
danger. 

There  is  still  another  disadvantage  in  the  colonisation 
of  persons  without  means  :  it  requires  enormous  sums 
of  money,  the  cost  of  settlement  for  every  colonist 
being  £750  or  more.  It  is  obvious  that  at  such  a  cost 
only  a  relatively  small  number  of  persons  can  be 
settled. 

D.  Economic  possibility  of  a  return  to  agriculture. 

If,  instead  of  some  dozens,  we  wish  to  see  some 
hundreds  or  even  thousands  of  Jews  reverting  to  agri- 
culture every  year,  this  can  only  happen  if  private 
persons  of  their  own  accord  devote  themselves  to  agri- 
culture, and  are  willing  to  set  up  as  independent  farmers, 


A  SELF-CONTAINED  JEWISH  LIFE      253 

defraying,  themselves,  all  the  costs  of  installation.  But 
is  this  to  be  expected  ?  Certainly  not,  if  cereal-growing 
is  the  only  prospect ;  for  the  private  man  of  means  it 
entails  too  much  hard  physical  labour  and  intimate 
agricultural  knowledge.  The  Jew  of  East  Europe  who 
possesses  the  capital  of  £750-^1,000  necessary  for  in- 
stallation as  a  farmer  can  be  assured  of  a  good  living 
as  an  industrial  employer,  and  naturally  hesitates  to 
devote  himself  to  a  difficult  and  unknown  calling.  It 
would  be  different  if  a  return  to  agriculture  presented 
the  prospect  of  easy  work  and  an  assured  existence. 
This  would  be  the  case  if,  instead  of  farming,  he  took 
up  fruit-growing.  For  this  the  soil  of  Palestine  is 
peculiarly  adapted,  and  it  demands  neither  hard  work 
nor  particular  agricultural  knowledge  when  once  the 
trees  are  yielding  fruit.1  If  only  some  plantation 
society  could  be  organised  which  would  encourage  small 
middle-class  Jewish  capitalists  to  invest  in  a  fruitful 
plantation,  their  reversion  to  agriculture  would  not 
mean  a  step  back  in  their  material  welfare  or  a  leap  in 
the  dark  :  on  the  contrary,  the  thought  of  dwelling 
"  each  man  under  his  own  vine  and  fig-tree  "  would 
no  longer  appear  economically  an  unpractical  dream. 

The  Jew  who  thus  acquires  a  fruitful  plantation  does 
not  of  course  become  a  farmer  ;  he  is  only  the  owner  of 
a  plantation,  but  he  lives  in  an  agricultural  milieu  and 
his  children  may  grow  up  in  this  milieu  as  real  husband- 
men. They  will  be  able  to  add  corn  to  fruit-growing, 
and  to  engage  in  all  branches  of  farming,  especially  if 

1  It  would  seem  that  the  Jew  is  far  better  adapted  to  arboriculture 
than  to  agriculture.  This  is  no  doubt  the  reason  why  the  Jews  of 
Russia  and  the  United  States  who  voluntarily  undertook  colonisation 
work  should  have  chosen  mainly  dairy  work,  horticulture,  tobacco- 
planting  and  vine-growing.  In  Palestine  the  Jewish  plantation 
colonies  are  technically  superior  to  the  German  colonies. 


254  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

care  is  taken  that  they  receive  elementary  agricultural 
education,  either  in  the  village  schools  or  from  special 
teachers,  so  that  the  love  of  and  understanding  for 
agriculture  is  awakened  in  them.1 

The  Jewish  colonies  of  South  Palestine,  which  are 
primarily  fruit-growing  colonies,  furnish  a  proof  for 
our  statement,  that  the  children  of  fruit-growers  are 
at  home  in  all  agricultural  callings,  including  actual 
tilling  of  the  soil.  For  the  sake  of  the  sons  it  is 
necessary  to  win  the  fathers.  The  agricultural  schools 
erected  at  great  expense  by  the  colonisation  societies 
in  Jaffa  (Palestine),  Djedeida  (Tunis),  Or-Jehuda  (Asia 
Minor),  Woodbine  (United  States),  Slobodka-Lesna 
(Galicia),  Steinhorst  (Hanover),  and  elsewhere,  only 
accomplish  to  a  very  small  extent  and  with  doubtful 
success  that  which  is  accomplished  in  the  cheapest  and 
most  natural  way  in  the  father's  household  in  the  rural 
atmosphere  and  in  the  village  schools,  namely,  the 
education  of  the  children  in  practical  farming.  It 
would  be  wrong  to  hold  up  the  dull  farmer  of  North 
and  East  Europe,  who  still  tills  his  field  as  his  ancestors 
did  before  him,  as  a  model  to  the  active-minded 
Jew.  Modern  husbandry  has  outgrown  this  type  of 
peasantry ;  its  best  representative  is  the  intelligent 
American  farmer  who  works  with  all  the  instruments 
modern  science  has  invented.  He  must  be  the  model 
for  the  Jewish  farmer. 

If  Jewish  capital  in  East  Europe  could  be  turned  to 

1  This  is  specially  necessary  for  the  daughters,  who  suffer  very 
much  from  the  present  neglect  of  agricultural  education  in  the 
Jewish  colonies.  Many  a  colonist  cannot  make  a  living  because  his 
wife  has  no  knowledge  of  those  pursuits,  which  in  a  well-ordered 
farming  establishment  should  be  her  special  province.  It  is  chiefly 
owing  to  the  incapacity  of  the  women  that  dairy-produce  and 
vegetable  produce  have  not  been  developed  in  Palestine. 


A  SELF-CONTAINED  JEWISH  LIFE      255 

the  uses  of  colonisation  and  arboriculture,  there  would 
be  the  additional  advantage  of  a  new  field  of  labour  for 
Jews  without  means,  who  would  thus  become  inured  to 
agriculture.1  As  yet  there  are  few  such  labourers,  and 
Jewish  colonisation  is  thereby  deprived  of  a  possible 
source  of  much  assistance.  A  great  influx  of  Jewish 
labourers  would  only  be  possible  if  these  men  could  look 
forward  to  the  prospect  of  becoming  something  more 
than  hired  servants — of  becoming  eventually  more  or 
less  independent.  This  might  be  done  by  admitting 
them  after  a  few  years  of  work  as  hired  labourers  to 
co-operative  settlements — as  Franz  Oppenheimer  re- 
commends— in  which  they  would  receive,  in  addition 
to  their  regular  wage,  a  portion  of  the  gross  profits. 
This  would  spur  them  on  to  work,  and  give  them  the 
chance  of  saving  enough  to  buy  a  small  piece  of  land 
or  a  house  of  their  own.2  Their  wages  as  labourers 
would  still  be  their  principal  source  of  income,  but,  in 
addition,  they  would  be  able  to  keep  up  a  small 
holding  for  dairy  and  vegetable  produce,  or  poultry 
farming,  by  which  they  could  support  their  families, 
and  by  gradual  purchase  of  land  raise  themselves  to 
independence. 

E.  Colonisation — philanthropic  and  national. 

Having  shown  that  it  is  economically  possible  to 
induce  Jews  both  with  and  without  means  to  revert  to 

1  In  Palestine,  for  example,  the  Jewish  immigrant  labourer  from 
Eastern  Europe  cannot  generally  compete  with  the  Arab  who  lives 
on  practically  nothing,  and  is  indispensable  for  preparing  new 
ground  for  Jewish  settlers  ;  but  in  proportion  as  more  ground  is 
acquired  by  Jews  for  plantations,  more  Jewish  labourers  will  be 
in  demand. 

2  Here  the  Colonisation  Societies  could  be  of  great  use  by  granting 
loans,  repayable  over  a  long  space  of  time. 


256  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

agriculture,  we  must  now  see  whether  the  Jews  will 
consent  to  do  so.  Economic  life  in  Europe  tends  more 
and  more  to  develop  industry  and  commerce  at  the 
expense  of  agriculture.  It  is  rare  to  find  anyone  who 
has  been  previously  engaged  in  industry  and  commerce 
reverting  to  agriculture.  If  this  is  true  of  the  general 
public,  it  is  still  more  so  of  the  Jews.  Their  great 
mental  activity  makes  them  turn  naturally  to  trade  and 
industry  as  offering  the  best  field  for  the  exercise  of 
their  talents  ;  they  are,  besides,  so  strikingly  successful 
in  these  callings  that  it  would  be  small  profit  to  them  to 
exchange  them  for  one  for  which  they  are  not  so  well 
adapted.  So  long  as  intelligence  has  a  commercial 
value — as  it  has  in  the  countries  where  the  Jews  prin- 
cipally reside — it  will  at  best  be  only  the  less  intelligent 
Jews  who  will  engage  in  agriculture  and  persist  in  it. 
Paradoxical  as  it  may  sound,  it  is  better  that  the  Jewish 
agricultural  schools  should  train  unintelligent  pupils  ; 
this  is  the  only  way  to  prevent  the  majority  from 
subsequently  giving  up  agriculture. 

To  sum  up  :  it  seems  to  us  that  a  voluntary  return 
of  Jews  to  agriculture  on  a  large  scale  will  only  come 
about  from  other  than  economic  causes.  For  instance, 
a  great  movement  might  be  started  which,  recognising 
that  the  present  condition  of  the  Jews  threatens  their 
annihilation,  postulates  a  return  to  agriculture  as  the 
only  means  of  preserving  the  Jewish  community.  If 
such  a  movement  is  to  succeed,  and  the  conditions 
which  it  creates  are  to  last,  the  economic  aspect — the 
indispensable  factor  in  social  life  everywhere — must  be 
favourable.  Enthusiasm  may  create  a  change,  but  the 
change  will  not  last  if  economic  conditions  do  not  come 
to  its  aid,  i.e.  in  our  case,  if  agriculture  does  not  hold 
its  own  against  trade  and  industry.     If  we  show  that  it 


A  SELF-CONTAINED  JEWISH  LIFE      257 

can,  as  we  have  tried  to  do,  the  return  of  the  Jews  to 
agriculture  might  be  realised  on  a  large  scale. 

This  return  to  agriculture  from  national  motives, 
which  we  shall  hereafter  call  national  colonisation,  is 
greatly  superior  to  the  philanthropic  colonisation 
previously  discussed.  Philanthropic  colonisation  is 
concerned  only  with  people  without  means  ;  national 
colonisation  affects  all  sections  of  Jewry.  It  can  dis- 
pense with  the  great  sums  needed  by  philanthropic 
colonisation,  since  it  relies  on  small  Jewish  capitalists 
giving  their  own  substance  for  the  purpose  of  colonisa- 
tion. Its  aim,  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  secure  social 
and  economic  life  for  the  Jews,  is  one  to  inspire  en- 
thusiasm, and  thereby  to  conquer  the  difficulties  which 
wrecked  philanthropic  colonisation. 

The  lessons  which  we  have  learnt  by  the  results  of 
previous  colonisation  are  : 

1.  For  cereal  growing  only  those  Jews  are  suited 
who  have  v~been  engaged  in  agriculture  from  their 
youth. 

*2.  Middle-aged  people  who  lack  agricultural  know- 
ledge, will  find  that  fruit-growing  offers  the  only 
possibility  of  a  return  to  husbandry.  Their  children 
will  find  this  a  stepping-stone  to  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  all  matters  connected  with  agriculture. 

3.  Philanthropic  colonisation,  which  provides  colon- 
ists without  means  with  land,  house  and  stock,  entails 
enormous  expenditure  and  has  relatively  little  effect,  a 
great  number  of  the  colonists  proving  incapable  and 
unfit. 

"4!  The  most  important  question  in  colonisation  is 
how.  to  preserve  the  stimulus  to  work  and  to  persevere 
even  in  the  face  of  adverse  circumstances.  The  colonist 
without  means  is  apt  either  to  desert  his  home  or  to  beg 


258  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

for  assistance.     The  independent  colonist  alone  can  be 
relied  upon  to  stay  and  struggle  on  unaided. 

5.  The  philanthropic  colonisation  societies  would 
achieve  much  better  results  if  they  would  confine  them- 
selves to  advancing  loans  on  credit  to  the  settlers  as 
cottagers,  cereal  farmers  or  fruit-growers — according  to 
the  means  and  capacities  of  the  individual — after  the 
manner  of  the  European  agrarian  banks. 

6.  A  return  of  the  Jews  to  agriculture  on  a  large 
scale  will  not  be  brought  about  by  any  amount  of 
philanthropic  colonisation  ;  it  is  only  possible  through  a 
colonisation  movement,  inspired  by  a  national  motive 
which  will  attract  Jews  with  means. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 
REVIVAL  OF  THE  HEBREW  LANGUAGE. 

A.  Yiddish  and  Hebrew. 

The  language  of  the  East  European  Jew  is  Jargon 
(Yiddish).  But  it  covers  only  one  side  of  Jewish  life. 
It  is  the  "  everyday  "  language.  The  language  of  Jewish 
literature  and  religion  is  Hebrew.  The  Jew  thinks  and 
prays  in  Hebrew  whenever  his  thoughts  soar  above 
everyday  life  ;  it  is  in  Hebrew  that  the  East  European 
Jew  has  set  down  everything  he  has  thought  and  ex- 
perienced in  the  sphere  of  religion  and  study  down  to 
the  present  day.  This  division  between  the  literary 
and  the  colloquial  language  is  not  uncommon  ;  the 
same  thing  is  found,  for  instance,  in  the  difference 
between  spoken  Arabic  and  the  Arabic  of  literature. 

In  speaking  of  the  language  of  the  Jews,  the  question 
arises  whether  Yiddish  or  Hebrew  is  meant.  Both 
languages  exert  about  the  same  influence  on  the  thought 
and  feeling  of  the  East  European  Jew,  and  secular 
knowledge  can  be  equally  well  conveyed  in  either.  To 
which  language  should  the  preference  be  given  ? 
Yiddish  has  in  its  favour  that  it  is  already  the  language 
of  the  masses,  and  its  relationship  to  German  renders 
German  literature  easily  accessible.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  absence  of  a  classical  literature  induces  a  feeling  of 
instability,  the  language  is  always  changing,  and  the 


260  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

influence  of  English  in  England  and  America  has 
already  brought  about  many  alterations.  A  language 
which  has  such  a  shifting  foundation  and  which  has  no 
pretence  to  grammar  is  not  very  suitable  for  educational 
and  literary  purposes.  In  addition,  Yiddish  is  not 
calculated  to  command  the  respect  of  other  nations, 
in  particular  of  its  nearest  relation,  German.  It  is  true, 
no  doubt,  that  many  of  the  phrases  which  sound  peculiar 
to  German  ears  are  good  old  German  forms  borrowed 
from  Mittelhochdeutsch.  But  the  Tertium  compara- 
tionis  will  always  be  the  German  of  to-day,  and  against 
that  Yiddish — like  Plattdeutsch — will  be  hard  put  to 
it  to  maintain  its  dignity. 

With  Hebrew  it  is  another  matter.  Its  literature  of 
3,000  years,  and  its  well-defined  grammar  make  it  a 
splendid  educational  language.  Its  literary  treasures 
and  its  past  would  ensure  for  it,  as  a  living  language, 
the  esteem  not  only  of  the  Jews,  but  of  all  enlightened 
nations.  A  knowledge  of  Hebrew  is  still  cultivated  by 
Christians,  and  is  taught  at  all  European  Universities. 
Should  it  be  again  revived  by  the  Jews,  it  would 
awaken  the  greatest  interest  among  Christian  scholars, 
and  works  written  in  Hebrew  would  be  accessible  to 
Christian  readers.  It  would  create  sympathies  similar 
to  those  which  the  new  Greek  language — by  derivation 
from  classical  Greek — evoked  from  the  European 
nations.  A  knowledge  of  Yiddish,  on  the  other  hand, 
would  be  closely  confined  to  the  Jews,  and  would  have 
no  more  importance  than  that  of  other  petty  national 
dialects,  such  as  Servian  and  Bulgarian. 

B.  Hebrew  as  the  national  language  in  Palestine. 

These  remarks  will  suffice  to  show  that  Hebrew  is  the 
most  desirable  tongue  and  the  best  qualified  to  be 


REVIVAL  OF  HEBREW  LANGUAGE       261 

the  national  language  of  the  Jews.  Has  it  a  claim 
ipso  facto  to  become  the  national  language  ? 

Efforts  to  revive  Hebrew  as  the  mother-tongue  of  the 
Jews  have  been  on  foot  during  the  last  few  decades,  and 
have  of  late  years  been  renewed  with  added  vigour  ; 
societies  for  the  furtherance  of  the  Hebrew  language 
work  in  every  country  for  the  revival  of  the  ancient 
national  language.  In  Russia  and  Galicia  interest  in 
Hebrew  as  a  spoken  language  is  growing,  the  number 
of  those  who  habitually  speak  Hebrew  has  increased, 
and  a  so-called  neo-Hebrew  literature  has  arisen,  which 
has  a  distinct  modern  tendency  ;  but  we  must  not  shut 
our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  this  movement,  so  far,  only 
affects  a  very  small  section  of  the  Jewish  population, 
and  that  the  masses  remain  untouched  by  it.  The 
Jewish  newspapers  of  East  Europe,  which  have  an 
immense  circulation,  are  still,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
written  in  Yiddish,  not  in  Hebrew.  It  is  unthinkable 
that  Hebrew  can  ever  become  the  colloquial  language  of 
the  Jewish  masses  in  East  Europe.  It  is  difficult  enough 
to  preserve  the  language  of  a  small  nation  in  the  midst 
of  another  prevailing  language ;  it  is  far  more  difficult  to 
create  a  new  national  language  in  place  of  one  which 
already  prevails.  Hebrew  is  completely  isolated  among 
the  European  languages  ;  economically  there  is  ab- 
solutely no  incentive  in  East  Europe  for  adopting 
Hebrew  as  the  general  language.  It  is  the  "  Holy 
Language,"  the  language  of  prayer  and  of  ancient 
Jewish  literature,  and  as  such  suffers  considerable 
discredit  under  the  present  fashion  of  depreciating  all 
matters  religious. 

Conditions  are  more  favourable  to  Hebrew  in  another 
country,  Palestine.  Here  thirty  years  of  effort  for  the 
revival  of  the  Hebrew  language  have  been  crowned  with 


262  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

success  :  most  of  the  Jewish  schools  have  adopted 
Hebrew  as  the  language  of  instruction,  while  it  is  gradu- 
ally becoming  the  mother-tongue  of  the  Jewish  youth. 
Palestine  offers  special  advantages  for  the  revival  of 
Hebrew,  the  majority  of  Jewish  settlers  there  being 
filled  with  the  national  spirit,  and  thus  especially  sym- 
pathetic to  the  ancient  national  language.  Besides 
this,  Hebrew  is  the  only  language  in  which  all  Jews  can 
make  themselves  understood,  coming  as  they  do  to 
Palestine  from  every  country  of  the  world  ;  whatever 
their  mother- tongue,  be  it  Arabic,  Russian,  Spaniolisch 
or  Yiddish,  they  can  all  understand  at  least  a  little 
Hebrew.  Thus  Hebrew  is  a  bond  of  union  between 
these  Jews  ;  and  we  get  an  idea  of  the  diversity  of 
language  among  them  by  the  following  figures  from 
three  Jerusalem  Kindergartens  in  1907.  Of  the  305 
children  attending  them  : 

39.3  %  spoke  Spaniolisch  as  their  mother-tongue. 

38.0  %  „  Yiddish 

7.1  %  ,,  Arabic 

5.2  %  ,,  Bucharic 
5.2  %  „  Persian 
3.2  %  ,,  Grusinic 
1.0  %  „  Morocco  dialects  ,, 
1.0  %  „  Bulgarian 

These  reasons  alone,  however,  would  not  have  sufficed 
to  secure  the  supremacy  of  Hebrew,  had  not  economic 
and  social  conditions  been  favourable  to  the  revival. 
In  no  other  country  has  the  Jewish  agricultural  popula- 
tion such  a  strong  influence  over  the  general  Jewish 
population.  Although  the  number  of  Jews  in  the 
colonies  is  only  10  per  cent,  of  the  Jewish  population  of 
Palestine,  it  is  economically  much  stronger  than  the 


REVIVAL  OF  HEBREW  LANGUAGE       263 

town  population,  which  exists  for  the  most  part  on 
Chalukah.  It  is  the  colonies  which  have  established 
Hebrew  as  the  living  language.  In  order  to  transplant 
Hebrew  from  the  colonies  to  the  towns,  it  will  be 
necessary  for  the  Jews  of  the  towns  to  deal  with  Jews 
(i.e.  with  the  colonists  and  the  Chalukists)  in  preference 
to  the  surrounding  Arabs,  and  so  get  accustomed  to 
using  Hebrew  in  their  daily  and  business  life. 

The  efforts  to  bring  cohesion  into  the  Jewish  schools 
of  Palestine  are  likely  to  lead  to  the  universal  adoption 
of  Hebrew  as  the  language  of  instruction,  other  lan- 
guages being  taught  as  foreign  languages.1  Ten  years 
ago  one  could  almost  count  the  Jews  in  Palestine  who 
spoke  Hebrew  ;  to-day  in  all  the  Jewish  quarters  of 
the  towns  and  in  the  colonies  Hebrew  is  heard  more 
often  than  any  other  language,  especially  from  the 
children.  The  demand  that  every  Jew  shall  speak 
Hebrew  is  becoming  widespread.  The  acknowledg- 
ment of  Jewish  nationality  is  practically  identified  in 
Palestine  with  the  acknowledgment  of  Hebrew  as  the 
national  language.  (The  same  thing  occurs  with  other 
nations  who  lack  political  independence,  Poles,  Ruthe- 
nians,  etc.)  We  can  see  how  Hebrew  has  taken  root 
in  Palestine  by  the  fact  that  all  Jewish  newspapers 
and  periodicals  there  are  written  in  Hebrew,  not  a 
single  publication  being  issued  in  either  Yiddish  or 

1  Arabic  (the  native  language),  Turkish  (the  official  language),  and 
one  European  language  are  taught  as  foreign  languages.  French 
(the  language  of  instruction  in  the  schools  of  the  Alliance  Israelite 
Universelle,  and  the  ruling  language  in  the  Levant)  and  German 
(the  language  of  instruction  in  the  schools  of  the  Hilfsverein  der 
Deutschen  Juden,  and  becoming  daily  of  more  importance  with 
the  growth  of  German  influence  in  the  Orient)  struggle  for  the  mastery 
with  Hebrew.  English  also  has  its  supporters,  and  is  taught  in 
some  schools. 


264  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

Spaniolisch.  The  common  language  has  its  effect  on 
the  population,  and  makes  for  a  rapprochement  between 
the  Sephardim  and  Ashkenazim.  The  coolness  which 
still  exists  in  the  East  between  Sephardim  and  Ash- 
kenazim has  tended  to  disappear  in  Palestine,  and  this 
is  greatly  due  to  the  common  language. 

It  may  at  any  rate  be  claimed  that  in  Palestine  the 
reawakening  of  the  Hebrew  language  is  no  longer  a 
dream  but  a  reality.  Hebrew  in  that  country,  from 
being  a  dead  language,  has  really  become  a  living  one, 
and  much  is  being  done  to  strengthen  its  hold  and  to 
modify  it  to  suit  the  uses  of  daily  life.  The  development 
of  the  plant,  which  to-day  is  still  young  and  tender, 
depends  principally  on  the  development  of  national 
agricultural  colonisation  in  Palestine.  If  that  suffers 
a  set-back,  Hebrew  will  suffer  too.  Without  numerous 
agricultural  colonies,  the  Hebrew  language  will  be  an 
artificial  and  lifeless  product ;  with  such  colonies  in 
Palestine,  it  will  be  a  natural  and  vital  growth. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

LOCAL  SEGREGATION  OF  THE  JEWS. 

A.  Local  segregation  and  its  relation  to  culture. 

We  have  already  shown  that  it  is  necessary  for  Jews 
to  live  together  in  compact  communities  if  they  wish 
to  be  protected  against  assimilation,  to  which  in  their 
present  condition  of  small  scattered  minorities  they 
have  fallen  victims.  Just  as  an  army  in  hostile  territory 
is  much  more  easily  destroyed  when  it  is  divided  into 
small  groups  than  when  it  is  concentrated  in  a  mass, 
so  Jews  could  best  withstand  assimilation  by  concentra- 
tion in  great  numbers  in  one  area.  The  defensive  value 
of  local  segregation  is  not  its  only  recommendation  ; 
it  has  the  added  positive  value  of  creating  a  centre  for 
the  production  of  an  individual  civilisation.  It  is 
almost  a  truism  to  say  that  even  the  greatest  minds  are 
influenced  by  their  surroundings,  and  that  their  work 
bears  not  only  the  impress  of  their  genius,  but  the 
impress  of  the  conditions  of  its  production.  If  the 
environment  is  non- Jewish,  the  creative  work  of  the 
Jews  will  be  either  un-Jewish,  or  Jewish  only  to  a  slight 
extent.  For  this  reason  there  may  be  Jewish  artists, 
but  no  Jewish  art.  Jewish  art  presupposes  a  Jewish 
milieu,  i.e.  first  and  foremost,  masses  of  Jews  living 
together.  Such  a  milieu  is  the  only  one  which  can  make 
the  creative  artist  free  of  foreign  influences,  and  by  its 


266  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

kinship  of  race  and  sentiment  thoroughly  appreciate 
him  and  spur  him  on  to  his  best  work. 

How  can  the  Jews  create  this  centre  ?  They  need  a 
country  in  which  all  our  previously  mentioned  con- 
ditions for  the  creation  of  a  new  Jewish  culture  can  be 
fulfilled  ;  where  they  must  be  engaged  in  every  occupa- 
tion including  agriculture,  where  they  can  use  their  own 
language  and  have  their  own  schools.  The  land  chosen 
must  be  one  which,  if  it  does  not  particularly  favour, 
must  not  preclude  Jews  from  taking  up  non-commercial 
callings,  notably  agriculture — a  land  which  would  make 
for  the  national  unity  of  Israel. 

Hitherto  there  have  been  three  different  answers  to 
the  question  in  which  land  tne"Tews^can'''"5esi:  live  in 
compact  masses,  and  therein  build  up  a  firm  Jewish 
economic  life.  They  are  so  many  different  manifesta- 
tions of  the  Will  to  live,  the  desire  of  preserving  the 
Jews  as  a  separate  entity  among  the  nations,  and  each 
of  them  deserves  serious  discussion.  The  fagi  answer 
is  that  the  Jews  should  concentrate  in  Eastern  Europe 
and  organise  themselves  on  a  national  basis ;  the 
second — Israel  ZangwuTs  solution — recommends  some 
territory  in  Africa  or  America,  as  yet  untouched  by 
Europeans  ;  the  third  solution — that  of  the  Zionists — 
makes  Palestine  the  one  and  only  possible  centre  for 
a  new  Jewish  life. 

B.  Prospects  of  concentration  in  Eastern  Europe. 

The  first  solution  is  nearest  to  hand.  In  some  dis- 
tricts of  Eastern  Europe  the  Jews  constitute  already 
about  one-fifth  of  the  population.  A  further  influx  of 
Jews  to  these  districts  from  other  parts  would  present 
no  great  difficulties,  distances  being  small  and  social 
and  climatic  conditions  very  much  the  same  as  those  to 


LOCAL  SEGREGATION  OF  THE  JEWS    267 

which  they  had  always  been  accustomed.  In  Yiddish 
a  common  language  would  be  already  provided.  But 
there  are  some  very  serious  objections.  In  the  first 
place,  Russian  law  to-day  forbids  Jews  to  settle  in 
villages,  and  this  practically  precludes  all  possibility 
of  agriculture  ;  and  it  is  certain  that  the  government, 
with  its  policy  of  crushing  out  all  minor  nationalities 
within  the  state,  would  fiercely  oppose  any  local  seg- 
regation of  Jews.  But  this  might  pass ;  laws  and 
policies  change  with  the  lapse  of  time  ;  and  these  diffi- 
culties could  be  surmounted  in  Austria,  where  the 
equality  of  the  Jews  and  the  rights  of  all  minor  nation- 
alities are  at  any  rate  legally  recognised.  But  two 
obstacles  still  remain.  A  return  to  agriculture  would 
not  be  successful  in  Eastern  Europe,  and  the  cultivation 
of  a  new  Jewish  life  would  be  exposed  to  constant  inter- 
ruption and  disturbance.  Eastern  Europe  is  on  the 
way  to  industrialism  :  industrial  society  offers  countless 
opportunities  to  the  Jews,  and  even  if  the  attempts  at 
agriculture  were  a  success,  there  would  always  be  the 
danger  that  at  the  slightest  hint  of  failure  the  Jews 
would  leave  their  new  activities  and  revert  again  to 
commerce  and  industry.  After  2,000  years  of  town- 
dwelling  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  Jews  should 
suddenly  feel  themselves  at  home  in  agriculture.  Very 
much  the  same  thing  applies  to  the  creation  of  a  new 
Jewish  culture.  East  Europe  is  too  near  the  vast  fields 
of  European  culture.  To  develop  a  culture  of  their 
own,  the  Jews  would  have  to  live  apart  from  other 
culture  for  some  little  time.  They  would  not  be  able 
to  persist  in  an  individual  nationality  and  culture 
against  the  tide  of  assimilation  with  which  they  would 
be  assailed  as  long  as  they  remain  in  the  midst  of 
nations  of  a  superior  state  of  culture.     They  would  be 


268  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

constantly  exposed  to  the  temptation  of  imitating  what 
they  see  done  around  them,  and  thus  their  civilisation, 
instead  of  being  Jewish,  would  be  an  inferior  edition  of 
Polish,  German  or  Russian  cultures. 

In  fact,  the  idea  of  a  Jewish  centre  in  East  Europe 
has  found  few  supporters.  There  is  much  talk  of  a 
"  National  Autonomy "  of  the  Jews,  that  is,  a 
legally  assured  position  as  a  nationality  in  the  legis- 
lature, and  greater  powers  of  autonomy  in  proportion 
to  their  numbers  (without  local  segregation).  In 
Galicia  and  Bukovina  national  autonomy  is  one  of  the 
principal  claims  of  those  Jews  who  have  national  aspira- 
tions. But  a  national  autonomy  such  as  this  is  not 
calculated  either  to  prove  a  lasting  protection  against 
assimilation  or  to  create  a  national  Jewish  culture,  so 
long  as  the  Jews  remain  as  scattered  and  as  little  at 
home  in  agriculture  as  they  are  now  in  Austria  and 
Galicia.  The  process  of  assimilation  might,  however, 
possibly  be  retarded  by  a  legally  assured  national 
position,  and  it  is  no  doubt  for  this  reason  that  in 
Galicia  and  Bukovina  the  Zionists  (whose  ideal  is 
Palestine)  work  for  local  national  autonomy. 

C.  Prospects    of    segregation    in    the    colonies    (Terri- 

torialism). 

A  Jewish  centre  in  Eastern  Europe  bristles  with  diffi- 
culties. Do  the  undeveloped  colonies  offer  a  better 
field  for  Jewish  settlement  ?  In  this  direction  the  only 
concrete  proposition  came  from  the  English  Govern- 
ment, whose  offer  of  Uganda  for  a  Jewish  settlement 
was  refused  by  the  Zionists.  Israel  Zangwill,  who 
pleaded  in  vain  for  the  acceptance  of  the  Uganda  offer, 
has  since  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  "  Territorialist  " 
movement.     Territorialism  lays  down  that,  Palestine 


LOCAL  SEGREGATION  OF  THE  JEWS    269 

being  impracticable,  the  Jews  must  concentrate  on 
some  other  territory ;  it  endeavours  to  find  some 
suitable  land  either  in  the  undeveloped  districts  of 
North  Africa  or  in  Central  America  or  Australia  ;  but 
it  has  nothing  definite  to  report.  It  is  undeniable  that 
the  Jews  who  should  leave  their  native  countries  for 
one  of  these  lands  would  be  protected  from  assimilation, 
and  on  the  way  to  developing  their  own  culture.  But 
the  question  is  whether  it  is  possible  to  settle  the  Jewish 
masses  in  such  a  country.  This  is  open  to  the  very 
gravest  doubts.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  highly  im- 
probable that  a  tract  of  land  suitable  for  colonisation 
by  European  Jews  will  be  so  easy  to  find  ;  Uganda  was 
certainly  not  adapted  to  a  large  settlement.  But  given 
such  a  country,  the  colonisation  of  an  unpopulated  and 
undeveloped  country  presents  such  gigantic  difficulties 
that  even  powerful  states  are  frequently  unable  to  sur- 
mount them.  When  we  remember  that  the  so-called 
Territorialists  only  entertain  the  idea  of  such  a  land 
because  they  think  it  would  present  fewer  difficulties 
than  Palestine,  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  under- 
estimate the  obstacles.  Palestine  may  indeed  present 
political  obstacles  which  do  not  exist  in  a  colonial 
country.  But  against  that  the  social  and  economic 
difficulties  are  slight  in  comparison.  Under  the  most 
favourable  circumstances,  it  would  take  many  scores 
of  years  to  settle  as  many  Jews  in  a  foreign  territory  as 
are  already  established  to-day  in  Palestine.  And  pro- 
bably by  that  time  the  work  will  prove  to  have  been 
useless,  and  the  political  difficulties  which  now  stand 
in  the  way  of  Jewish  immigration  to  Palestine  on  a 
large  scale  will  exist  no  longer.  It  would  be  slightly 
different  if  it  were  a  question  of  settling  Jews  in  Meso- 
potamia  or   Asia   Minor,   instead  of   in   undeveloped 


270  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

colonies.  The  economic  difficulties  here  would  be 
hardly  greater  than  in  Palestine,  though,  of  course,  the 
enthusiasm  which  Jews  feel  for  their  ancient  home,  and 
which  is  of  such  extraordinary  value  for  a  settlement  in 
Palestine,  would  here  be  lacking  also.  But  there  is  no 
sign  that  the  Turkish  government  would  be  more  sym- 
pathetically disposed  to  a  settlement  of  Jews  in  Meso- 
potamia or  Asia  Minor  than  to  one  in  Palestine  ;  so  the 
matter  need  not  be  discussed. 

D.  Prospects  of  segregation  in  Palestine  [Zionism). 

The  only  excuse  for  Territorialism  is^ffie  terrible 
distress  among  East  European  Jews,  which  is  such  that 
any  scheme  for  its  amelioration — be  it  never  so  nebulous 
— finds  ready  support.  Is  Zionism  anything  more  than 
another  such  adventurous  scheme  ?  Will  that  which 
seems  impracticable  in  Eastern  Europe  and  colonial 
countries  be  possible  in  Palestine  ?  It  is  impossible  to 
answer  unhesitatingly  in  the  affirmative.  But  we  may 
say  at  once  that  many  of  the  difficulties  before  enume- 
rated disappear  or  become  less  formidable  as  soon  as 
Palestine  is  proposed  as  the  land  for  segregation. 
The  climate  is  healthy  and  permits  of  the  settlement  of 
European  Jews.  Palestine  is  sufficiently  civilised  and 
in  close  enough  communication  with  modern  life  to 
obviate  difficulties  of  colonisation  such  as  would  be 
encountered  in  a  new  undeveloped  country  ;  at  the 
same  time  it  is  not  so  highly  civilised  that  the  Jews 
might  be  tempted  to  coalesce  with  the  non- Jewish 
population.  With  regard  to  culture  it  offers  exactly 
the  milieu  needed  by  the  Jews  :  not  too  backward  to 
deter  them,  not  advanced  enough  to  divert  them. 
Palestine  belongs  to  Turkey — a  state  made  up  of  small 
nationalities — and  at  the  same  time  the  only  state  in 


LOCAL  SEGREGATION  OF  THE  JEWS    271 

which  Jews  have  always  been  treated  as  a  nation  on 
equal  footing  with  other  nations.  Palestine  is  an 
agricultural  country  and  will  remain  so  for  many  de- 
cades. It,  therefore,  does  not  offer  any  temptations 
to  the  agricultural  settler  to  give  up  agriculture  in 
favour  of  some  business  profession.  There  are  some 
100,000  Jews  in  Palestine  to-day,  and  colonisation 
work  has  been  going  on  there  for  the  last  thirty  years. 
It  is  impossible  to  over-estimate  the  importance  of 
these  facts.  And  the  feelings  and  sentiment  of  the 
Jewish  masses  are  bound  up  with  Palestine,  the  ancient 
home  of  the  Jews,  more  closely  than  with  any  other 
country. 

If,  besides  all  this,  we  bear  in  our  mind  our  previous 
remarks  as  to  the  special  advantages  of  Palestine  for 
a  reversion  to  agricultural  life  and  for  the  revival  of  the 
Hebrew  language,  we  must  come  to  the  conclusion  that, 
for  the  settlement  of  the  Jewish  masses  and  the  develop- 
ment of  their  own  culture,  Palestine  is  to  be  preferred 
before  all  other  countries.  It  may  be  that  the  first 
Jews  who  proposed  a  Jewish  settlement  in  Palestine 
did  so  less  from  the  practical  motives  than  from  the 
force  of  sentiment  which  a  sense  of  the  religious  and 
historical  importance  of  Palestine  awakens  in  so  many 
Jews.  Their  sentiment  has  been  justified,  and  fur- 
nishes one  more  example  in  history  of  instinct  preceding 
reason,  in  which  it  afterwards  finds  its  justification. 

If  a  portion  of  the  Jews  of  Europe  were  to  return 
to  Palestine,  we  should  witness  a  repetition  of  that 
return  to  Zion  which  was  accomplished  2,500  years  ago, 
when  a  fraction  of  the  Jews  came  back  to  Palestine 
after  the  Babylonian  exile.  Babylon  then — like  Europe 
to-day — was  the  centre  of  culture  and  the  hot-bed  of 
assimilation.     As  with  the  European  Jews  to-day  only 


272  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

a  small  number  could  make  up  their  mind  to  exchange 
the  comfort  of  Babylon  for  the  barrenness  of  Palestine. 
Yet  that  small  handful  of  Jews  grew  again  into  a  nation 
with  a  well-defined  civilisation  of  its  own.  The  thought 
of  this  should  inspire  the  Jews  of  the  present  day,  and 
it  is  only  right  that  Zionism — the  movement  which 
aims  at  providing  a  continued  national  existence  for 
the  Jews  in  Palestine — should  be  the  subject  of  our 
last  chapter. 


SECTION  VI. 
ZIONISM 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

ZIONISM. 

A.  Origin  and  growth  of  Zionism. 

The  desire  to  return  to  Jerusalem  has  never  ceased 
burning  in  the  hearts  of  the  Jews,  and  two  thousand 
years  of  exile  have  not  sufficed  to  wipe  out  the  remem- 
brance of  their  former  state.  In  the  course  of  the 
centuries  the  expression  of  this  desire  has  taken  many 
different  forms.  During  the  first  thousand  years  of 
the  Christian  era  it  bore  a  political  character.  In  a 
famous  letter  from  the  Jewish  statesman  Chasdai  Ibn 
Schaprut  (Spain,  915-970)  to  Joseph,  King  of  the 
Chazars,  whose  ancestor  Bulan  had  embraced  Judaism 
two  hundred  years  before,  we  feel  the  burning  pain  of  lost 
independence,  of  shame  at  the  mockery  of  other  nations, 
that  Israel,  alone  of  the  nations,  should  be  without  a 
land  of  his  own.  The  love  of  Zion,  the  yearning  for  its 
lost  glory,  inspire  all  the  poems  of  the  greatest  of  the 
Jewish  poets  of  Spain,  Jehudah  Halevi,  who  in  his  old 
age  went  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem. 

From  the  twelfth  century  onward  this  ardent  desire 
for  Palestine  began  to  lose  its  intensity.  Conditions 
were  so  favourable  to  the  Jews  in  Spain  that  they  pre- 
ferred assimilation  to  a  return  to  Palestine  ;  as  their 
lot  deteriorated,  as  it  rapidly  did  in  Europe  during  the 
fourteenth  century,  the  remembrance  of  Zion  became 


276  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

more  vivid,  but  under  the  stress  of  persecution  the 
Jews  lost  faith  in  their  own  strength,  and  the  aspiration 
took  on  a  religious  and  quiescent  form.  At  each  feast 
of  Passover  the  Jew  still  prayed  "  next  year  in  Jeru- 
salem," but  he  now  invested  the  words  with  a  spiritual 
significance  ;  he  no  longer  hoped  to  see  the  Jews  turning 
their  steps  to  Palestine  in  his  own  day,  they  must  await 
the  coming  of  the  Messiah  to  lead  them  thither.  This 
quiescent  attitude,  which  discourages  and  deprecates 
any  active  effort  to  rehabilitate  the  Jews  in  Palestine, 
is  the  spirit  which  permeates  the  Jewish  masses  of 
Eastern  Europe  to-day,  and  has  dominated  Jewry 
since  the  fourteenth  century. 

Not  until  recent  times  has  feeling  on  this  subject  been 
aroused  from  its  lethargy.  During  the  eighteenth  and 
nineteenth  centuries,  numbers  of  religious  Jews  of 
advanced  years  used  to  wander  to  Palestine  with  the 
pious  wish  of  ending  their  days  there  and  being  buried 
in  holy  soil.  The  Jewish  communities  of  Jerusalem, 
Hebron,  Safed  and  Tiberias  owe  their  present  population 
chiefly  to  these  immigrations  of  aged  persons,  many 
of  whom  brought  with  them  their  children  and  grand- 
children. Though  this  population  received  monetary 
support  from  its  native  countries — this  support  being 
soon  converted  into  a  regular  system  of  almsgiving 
(Chalukah) — it  speedily  fell  into  the  greatest  distress, 
and  had  to  appeal  for  help  to  European  co-religionists. 
Thus  the  Jews  of  Central  and  Western  Europe  came  to 
be  interested  in  Palestine,  and  it  became  evident  that 
the  word  "  Palestine  "  still  exercised  its  old  power  over 
the  spirit  of  the  Jews.  Two  Rabbis,  Rabbi  Zevi  Hirsch 
Kalischer  of  Thorn,  and  Rabbi  Elias  Gutmacher  of 
Gratz,  started  an  agitation,  towards  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  for  the  foundation  of  Jewish  agri- 


ZIONISM  277 

cultural  colonies  in  Palestine,  with  a  view  to  improving 
the  condition  of  the  Palestinian  Jews,  and  of  uniting 
Jews  all  the  world  over,  in  a  common  cause — the  revival 
of  Jewish  agriculture  in  Palestine.  In  the  year  1870 
an  agricultural  school  at  Jaffa  was  actually  founded  by 
the  Alliance  Israelite  Universelle,  and  some  years  later 
the  first  colony  was  established.  In  Europe  a  society 
was  formed  for  the  support  of  the  Jewish  colonies  in 
Palestine,  the  "  Union  of  Lovers  of  Zion  "  (Chovevi 
Zion),  which  held  its  first  congress  in  Kattowitz  in  the 
year  1884,  when  delegates  were  present  from  Russia, 
Germany,  England  and  France.  The  movement  re- 
ceived a  great  impetus  from  Baron  Edmond  de  Roths- 
child of  Paris,  who  took  up  the  cause  of  Jewish  agri- 
cultural colonisation  in  Palestine  with  enthusiasm 
during  the  eighties,  and  endowed  it  with  immense  sums 
of  money. 

This  work  of  colonisation  may  have  been  started 
from  philanthropic  motives,  but  these  gradually  gave 
place  to  the  national  motive,  i.e.  the  idea  of  uniting  the 
Jews  and  protecting  them  from  the  dangers  of  the 
Goluth  (dispersion).  As  early  as  1862  Moses  Hess,  in 
his  book,  Rome  and  Jerusalem,  had  proclaimed  the 
national  idea  underlying  Judaism,  and  in  1876,  in  her 
novel,  Daniel  Deronda,  the  famous  English  authoress, 
George  Eliot,  created  a  hero  whose  ideal  in  life  is  to 
create  a  political  existence  for  the  Jewish  people,  to 
give  them  a  centre  for  their  national  life.  The  Russian 
Jew,  Leo  Pinsker,  writing  under  the  influence  of  the 
Jewish  persecutions  of  188 1,  propounds  the  same  doc- 
trine, and  declares  it,  in  his  brochure,  Auto-Emancipa- 
tion, published  in  1882,  the  only  solution  of  the  Jewish 
question  in  Eastern  Europe.  Neither  Hess,  nor  George 
Eliot,  nor   Pinsker,  however,  designated  Palestine  as 


278  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

the  necessary  centre,  and  the  idea  of  nationality  re- 
mained in  consequence  a  mere  theory  lacking  flesh  and 
blood.  It  became  a  living  thing  only  when  the  national 
idea  and  Palestine  were  identified.  It  was  the  Zionist 
Movement  which  bound  the  two  together.  At  its  first 
congress,  summoned  by  Theodor  Herzl  at  Basel,  1897, 
it  drew  up  as  its  programme — "  Zionism  seeks  to  secure 
a  legally  assured  home  for  the  Jewish  people  in  Pales- 
tine." Since  that  day  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Jews 
in  all  countries  have  subscribed  to  that  programme,  pay 
the  annual  shekel,  and  have  become  members  of  a 
great  organisation. 

The  enthusiasm  which  Zionism  has  aroused  varies 
very  much  in  different  countries.  It  finds  most  ardent 
support  in  Russia  and  among  the  Russian  emigrants 
in  England,  America  and  South  Africa  ;  a  considerable 
amount  also  in  Roumania,  Galicia  and  Bukovina  ;  on 
the  other  hand,  it  makes  slow  headway  in  other  parts 
of  Austria  (Bohemia,  Moravia,  etc.),  in  Hungary  and 
Italy,  and  wins  still  fewer  adherents  in  Germany  and 
Holland  and  France.  This  double  attitude  to  the 
Zionist  movement  reveals  the  antithesis  between  East 
and  West.  Wherever  the  Jewish  masses  constitute,  as 
they  do  in  Russia  and  Galicia,  a  self-contained  nation 
with  a  culture  of  their  own,  living  in  bad  material 
circumstances  and  under  political  oppression,  en- 
thusiasm for  the  Zionist  ideal — to  create  a  new  and 
better  home  for  the  Jewish  people — is  a  matter  of  course. 
The  Eastern  Jew  may  think  the  aim  unattainable  ;  but 
he  desires  it  none  the  less.  It  is  otherwise  with  the 
Western  Jew.  Living  in  comfortable  material  circum- 
stances, often  in  prosperity  and  luxury,  under  the  pro- 
tection of  a  well-ordered  state,  he  identifies  himself 
with  the  culture  of  his  native  land.     If  he  should 


ZIONISM  279 

become  a  Zionist — for  himself  and  not  only  for  others — 
he  stands  to  lose  much.  Modern  education  makes  the 
Western  Jew  feel  strange  and  superior  to  the  Eastern 
Jew,  and  undesirous  of  coming  into  close  contact  with 
him.  Only  a  few  can  rise  above  this  feeling  and  re- 
cognise a  brother  and  an  equal  in  the  Eastern  Jew  ; 
they  are  to  be  found  mostly  among  members  of  orthodox 
communities  and  families,  brought  up  in  the  old  Jewish 
tradition,  who  feel  the  tie  of  religious  brotherhood  more 
binding  than  any  other.  To  these  Western  adherents 
of  Zionism  we  must  add  individual  idealists  with  strong 
racial  feeling,  and  the  still  greater  number  of  those  who 
have  been  special  victims  of  anti-Semitism.  With 
these  latter,  the  stronger  their  feeling  of  honour  the 
more  insupportable  become  the  open  or  disguised 
insults  and  humiliations  to  which  they  are  submitted, 
and  the  more  ardently  do  they  desire  to  remodel  their 
condition.  They  turn  to  Zionism  seeing  in  it  a  promise 
of  a  radical  change.  It  would  be  untrue  to  say  that 
Zionism  grew  out  of  anti-Semitism  alone,  but  anti- 
Semitism  is  a  powerful  incentive,  and  its  cessation 
would  be  followed  by  a  decline  of  Zionism.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  University  men  furnish  so  large  a  con- 
tingent of  Zionists  in  Austria  and  Germany,  and  form, 
indeed,  the  very  heart  of  the  movement.  It  is  a  result  of 
the  fact  that  anti-Semitism  is  particularly  directed  against 
Jews  at  the  Universities  and  in  professions,  and  these 
in  turn  are  particularly  sensitive  to  slights  and  insults. 

B.  Revival  of  Judaism  by  Zionism. 

What  Zionism  has  hitherto  accomplished  for  the 
revival  of  Judaism  cannot  be  rated  lightly.  By  its 
congresses — attended  by  several  hundred  delegates 
from  all  parts  of  the  world — it  has  not  only  established 


280  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

an  international  alliance  among  the  Jews  (this  had 
already  been  done  by  the  Alliance  Israelite  Universale) , 
but  it  has  created  an  international  Jewish  sympathy. 
It  has  succeeded  in  raising  about  £400,000  for  a  national 
fund,  most  of  it  subscribed  by  its  poorest  supporters, 
and  in  itself  a  witness  to  their  self-sacrificing  devotion. 
But  the  greatest  achievement  of  Zionism  is,  that  by 
its  very  existence  it  has  once  more  created  an  ideal  for 
those  Jews  who  had  forsaken  the  Jewish  religion,  lost 
their  faith,  and  with  it,  all  noble  ideals.  Baptised  or 
unbaptised,  they  were  compelled  to  assist,  repressed 
and  unbidden,  in  the  cultural  activities  of  the  people 
among  whom  they  lived,  or,  entirely  renouncing  ideals, 
to  devote  themselves  to  the  piling  up  of  wealth  and  to 
material  enjoyment.  Zionism  has  created  an  ideal  for 
these  Jews,  given  a  new  meaning  to  life  and  endeavour. 
Before  the  advent  of  Zionism  the  position  of  gifted  and 
serious-minded  Jews  was  indeed  pitiable.  They  were 
torn  in  two  by  the  discrepancy  between  on  the  one 
hand  their  desire  to  identify  themselves  with,  and 
benefit,  the  culture  of  their  native  land  and  a  justifiable 
pride  in  their  own  capacity  to  do  so,  and  on  the  other 
the  opposition  they  encountered,  the  humiliating  and 
embittering  sense  of  social  inferiority.1  Zionism  came 
as  a  solution,  especially  to  young  Jewish  University  men 
in  Germany  and  Austria.  To  get  an  idea  of  what 
Zionism  means  to  these  students,  we  have  only  to  com- 
pare the  quiet  confidence  and  optimism  of  the  Zionist 
student  at  German  and  Austrian  Universities  with  the 
students  in  pre-Zionistic  times,  vacillating  between 
Judaism  and  baptism,  timid,  devoid  of  ideals.     Finding 

1  A  vivid  picture  of  this  state  of  things  (slightly  overdrawn  in 
places)  is  given  in  Nordau's  drama,  Doctor  Kohn ;  also  in  the  novel, 
Werther  der  Jude,  by  Ludwig  Jakobowski,  Dresden,  1903. 


ZIONISM  281 

the  way  made  smooth  for  them  by  Zionism,  there  have 
come  forward  many  authors  and  poets,  writing  either  in 
Hebrew  or  Yiddish,  who  would  hardly  have  dared  to 
write  before.  Again,  the  warmth  with  which  many 
Jews  in  recent  years  have  devoted  themselves  to  all 
aspects  of  Jewish  life  is  directly  attributable  to  the  fire 
kindled  by  Zionism. 

It  is  Zionism,  again,  which  has  re-established  the 
bond  of  unity  between  the  Western  and  the  Eastern 
Jew.  Before  its  advent  the  Western  Jew  remembered 
his  brother  in  Eastern  Europe  only  when  his  sympathy 
was  aroused  by  bloody  persecutions  in  Russia.  Apart 
from  these  catastrophes  there  was  no  connection  be- 
tween East  and  West.  The  relation  between  the 
Western  and  Eastern  Jew  was  not  greatly  different  to 
that  between  the  Sephardim  and  Ashkenazim  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  when  the  Sehardim  in  London 
forbade  marriage  with  the  Ashkenazim,  and  actually 
induced  the  town  of  Bordeaux  to  expel  Aschkenazim 
Jews.  The  Western  Jew  did  not  know  the  Eastern, 
and  did  not  wish  to  know  him.  He  was  ashamed  of 
him  as  of  a  poor  uneducated  relative,  whom  one  pities 
and  supports  in  private  but  denies  in  public.  The 
great  Jewish  societies  assumed  the  character  of  bene- 
factors to  the  East  European  Jew  ;  they  looked  upon 
him  not  as  a  colleague,  but  as  the  object  of  their  bene- 
volent activities.  The  Western  Jew  had  no  idea  of 
the  wealth  of  idealism,  of  the  undiscovered  spiritual 
treasures  of  the  Russian  Jews. 

Zionism  has  changed  all  that.  The  gulf  between 
East  and  West  is  not  yet  filled  in,  but  it  has  been 
bridged,  and  vast  possibilities  have  been  opened  up. 
Even  the  Sephardim  of  the  East  (in  Palestine  and  else- 
where) have  been  touched  by  the  breath  of  Zionism. 


282  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

They  used  to  be  contented  enough  with  the  schools  of 
the  Alliance  Israelite  Universelle,  where  their  children 
acquired  useful  knowledge,  the  French  language  in 
particular,  but  were  quite  separated  from  the  Asch- 
kenazim.  They  were  almost  totally  lacking  in  that 
which,  to  the  poorest  Jew  of  Eastern  Europe,  is  the 
breath  of  his  nostrils — love  of  Jewish  literature  and 
lively  sympathy  with  and  interest  in  the  fate  of 
the  Jews  all  the  world  over.1 

Zionist  effort  has  to  a  certain  extent  succeeded  in 
making  a  breach  in  this  apathy,  and  in  arousing  the 
interest  of  the  Sephardim  in  the  general  condition  of 
Jewry  and  the  importance  of  Palestine.  Much  has  still 
to  be  done  before  the  Sephardim  are  won  over  to 
Zionism  ;  but  among  Sephardim  youth  it  is  gradually 
finding  acceptance,  and  little  by  little  their  minds  are 
becoming  saturated  with  the  Zionistic  idea.  This  is 
important,  because  the  attitude  of  the  Turkish  Govern- 
ment to  Zionism  is  likely  to  depend  very  much  upon  the 
attitude  of  its  Jewish  subjects. 

C.  Economic  activity  of  the  Zionists  in  Palestine. 

Zionism  has  only  recently  started  work  in  its  own 
field,  Palestine.  The  present  Jewish  population  of 
Palestine  is  made  up  of  three  different  sections  of 
immigrants  :  first,  the  Spaniolisch-speaking  Jews,  who 
directly  or  indirectly  came  to  Palestine  after  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Jews  from  Spain  ;  second,  the  Ash- 
kenazi  Jews,  who,  from  religious  motives,  emigrated 
from  Eastern  Europe  in  the  eighteenth  and  ninteenth 
centuries,  and  settled  in  Jerusalem,  Hebron,  Safed  and 
Tiberias  ;   third,  the  Ashkenazi  Jews  who,  during  the 

1  The  Jews  of  Salonica  are  an  exception  to  this  rule,  and  have 
preserved  a  specifically  Jewish  life. 


ZIONISM  283 

last  thirty  years,  have  gone  out  as  labourers  and  small 
traders  under  the  influence  of  the  Jewish  Agricultural 
Colonisation  Societies  and  of  Zionism.  Besides  these 
three  principal  groups  there  is  a  comparatively  small 
number  of  Asiatic  and  African  Jews  who  have  come  to 
Palestine  during  the  last  two  centuries  from  Buchara, 
Persia,  Southern  Arabia,  Northern  Syria  (Aleppo, 
Urfa),  the  Caucasus  and  Morocco. 

The  lack  of  reliable  statistics  makes  it  impossible  to 
give  any  accurate  figures  for  the  Jewish  population  ; 
taking  a  general  estimate,  we  may  say  that  their 
numbers  have  increased  from  about  35,000  in  1880 
(7  per  cent,  of  the  total  population  of  500,000  souls) 
to  86,000  in  the  year  1910  (14.3  per  cent,  of  the  total 
population  of  600,000).  The  following  table  gives  the 
extraction,  the  increase  and  the  local  distribution  of  the 
Jews  in  each  decade,  but  for  the  reason  given  above,  it 
can  make  no  claim  to  accuracy,  and  can  only  be  a 
general  estimate.  We  see  that  the  three  great  immi- 
grant sections  are  about  equal  in  numbers,  and  that,  of 
the  86,000  Jews  in  Palestine,  50,000  live  in  Jerusalem 
alone,  28,000  in  five  other  towns,  and  only  8,000  in  the 
colonies.  The  economic  condition  of  the  populations 
in  the  towns  is  bad.  The  old  Ashkenazim — more 
than  a  third  of  the  population —is  dependent  upon 
charitable  support,  which  it  derives  from  the  "  Cha- 
lukah  " — a  fund  of  several  million  francs  contributed 
by  pious  Jews  all  over  the  world  for  the  upkeep  of  their 
Palestinian  brethren  ;  the  rest  of  the  Jews  are  small 
traders,  artisans  and  hired  labourers ;  a  very  small 
number  make  good  livings  in  business  or  in  some  other 
independent  calling.  The  economic  condition  of  the 
colonies  leaves  much  to  be  desired,  but  it  is  incom- 
parably superior  to  that  of  the  towns. 


284 


THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 


EXTRACTION,  INCREASE  AND  LOCAL  DISTRIBUTION 
OF  THE  JEWISH  POPULATION  IN  PALESTINE. 


6 

a 

4) 
CO 

Old 

Aschkenas. 

Immigrant 

Section. 

Young 

Aschkenas. 

Immigrant 

Section. 

Immigrants 
from  Asia 
and  Africa. 

O 

H 

No.  in  year  1880,   -          -          - 
Decade   \  Natural  Increase,  - 

1881-1890J  By  Immigration,    - 
Decade  )  Natural  Increase,  - 

1 891-1900/ By  Immigration,    - 
Decade  \ Natural  Increase,  - 

1901-1901/ By  Immigration,    - 

20,000 
2,000 

2,000 

2,000 

15,000 
1,000 
5,000 
1,000 
4,000 
I.OOO 
4,000 

3,000 
1,000 
7,000 
2,000 
10,000 

1,500 
200 

2,000 
300 

2,000 

35.000 
3,000 
9.500 
4,200 

13,000 
5.300 

16,000 

Nos.  in  the  year  1910,     - 

26,000 

31,000 

23,000 

6,000 

86.OOO 

Of  these  there  lived 
in    Jerusalem,    - 
,,     Jaffa,             ... 
,,     Safed, 

,,     Tiberias,       ... 
„     Haifa, 
,,     Hebron, 
,,     Colonies, 

15,000 
3,000 
3,000 
2,500 
2,000 
500 

20,000 

7,000 
3.500 

500 

10,000 
4.500 

1,000 

7.500 

5,000 
500 

5°0 

50,000 

8,000 

10,000 

6,ooo 
3,000 
1,000 
8,000 

Total, 

26,000 

31,000 

23,000 

6,000 

86,000 

The  economic  work  of  the  Zionists  in  Palestine  is 
connected  with  the  colonisation  activities  of  Baron 
de  Rothschild  and  has  led  to  the  foundation  of  some 
new  colonies.  The  philanthropic  idea  here  falls  into 
the  background  ;  the  aim  is  to  attract  a  Jewish  agri- 
cultural population  on  to  Palestinian  soil.  Zionism 
does  not  go  in  for  philanthropic  colonisation,  and  could 
not,  even  if  it  would,  seeing  the  enormous  sums  entailed 
by  such  colonisation.  It  therefore  confines  itself  at 
present  to  assisting  and  facilitating  the  development  of 
suitable  general  conditions ;  by  establishing  infor- 
mation  bureaux  and  societies  for  the  foundation  or 


ZIONISM  285 

furtherance  of  plantations  and  land  partition  ;  by 
forming  corporate  societies  and  by  lending  credit  from 
its  own  bank.  It  has  likewise  taken  in  hand  the 
afforestation  of  land,  the  introduction  of  wholesale 
trade  in  connection  with  agriculture  ;  it  has  attempted 
to  introduce  new  methods  of  agriculture  and  to  en- 
courage home  industries,  arts  and  crafts,  etc.  The 
success  that  attends  their  efforts  is  already  noticeable, 
but  the  future  alone  will  show  the  full  result.  The 
economic  weakness  of  the  Jews  in  Palestine  cannot 
be  removed  in  a  single  day  ;  it  arises  from  the  fact 
that,  Palestine  being  an  agricultural  country,  the 
economic  strength  belongs  naturally  to  those  who  own 
the  soil. 

The  area  of  Palestine  is  30,000  qkm.,  and  only  500 
qkm.,  i.e.  less  than  2  per  cent.,  is  in  Jewish  hands,  or 
counting  only  the  arable  land  (i.e.  excluding  mountains, 
lakes  and  marshes),  perhaps  3  per  cent,  to  4  per  cent. 
With  a  Jewish  population  of  about  14.3  per  cent,  of 
the  total  population,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Jews  possess 
far  less  land  than  their  numbers  would  demand.  The 
only  way  they  can  become  economically  stronger  is  for 
them  to  acquire  more  land,  and  participate  more 
largely  in  agricultural  pursuits. 

D.  Zionism  and  the  Turkish  Government. 

Zionism  has  undergone  a  certain  transformation 
since  its  first  congress.  At  the  beginning  the  all- 
important  question  had  been  how  to  obtain  from  the 
Turkish  Government  a  binding  agreement,  by  means 
of  an  irrevocable  act  of  state — a  charter — for  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Jewish  masses  in  colonisation  in  Palestine. 
The  question  of  the  possibility  of  such  a  settlement, 
even  with  the  acquiescence  of  the  Turkish  Government, 


286  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

was  set  aside.  It  was  not  until  the  diplomatic  negotia- 
tions with  the  Turkish  Government  fell  through  that 
it  began  to  be  questioned  whether  the  charter  was 
really  essential  to  Zionism — a  question  which  was 
finally  answered  in  the  negative.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  acquisition  of  a  charter  would  be  both  fruitless  and 
useless.  Fruitless,  because  no  civilised  government 
can  grant  persons  belonging  to  other  states  and  living 
in  other  countries  special  rights  and  privileges  in  a 
country  which  is  inhabited  by  its  own  subjects.  Use- 
less, because  the  moment  the  Turkish  Government 
wished  to  alter  its  policy  towards  the  new  Jewish 
settlement,  the  charter  would  become  a  worthless 
piece  of  paper  (compare  paragraph  44  of  the  Berlin 
Treaty  and  the  behaviour  of  the  Roumanian  Govern- 
ment) ;  useless,  moreover,  because  the  legal  security 
which  the  charter  was  to  obtain  for  Jewish  work  in 
Palestine  will  be  gained  step  by  step  by  the  work  of 
colonisation,  and  does  not  need  to  precede  it. 

In  spite  of  all  this,  however,  it  was  right  that  Zionism 
should  have  started  out  with  the  idea  of  the  charter. 
Without  it,  it  would  not  have  succeeded  so  easily  in 
gaining  the  support  of  the  Jewish  masses.  The  charter 
idea  gave  to  the  movement  the  breadth  which  had  been 
wanting  in  the  previous  efforts  of  the  Chovevi  Zion. 
But  the  charter  idea  has  already  fulfilled  its  mission 
and  will  have  to  submit  to  the  fate  of  the  idea  of 
"  the  association  of  means  of  production "  in  the 
Socialist  movement.  "  To  us,  the  end  is  nothing,  the 
movement  everything  " — these  words  of  Edward  Bern- 
stein, spoken  of  the  changed  conditions  of  social  demo- 
cracy, may  be  equally  well  applied  to  Zionism. 

In  addition  to  the  value  of  the  charter  idea  for  Zionist 
propaganda,  it  must  be  agreed  that  the  recognition  of 


ZIONISM  287 

the  necessity  of  an  understanding  with  Turkey — 
though  too  much  insisted  upon,  to  the  exclusion  of 
other  things — was  absolutely  justifiable.  Colonisation 
on  a  large  scale  within  the  Turkish  Empire  can  only 
prosper  when  it  enjoys  the  goodwill  of  the  Turkish 
Government.  It  will  not  suffice  to  rely  upon  existing 
Turkish  law  and  on  the  validity  of  local  transactions  ; 
the  administrative  support  of  the  central  government 
and  its  local  appurtenances  must  be  added  to  ensure 
success  for  the  work  of  colonisation.  Zionism  will, 
therefore,  always  be  concerned  to  convince  the  Turkish 
Government  of  the  usefulness  of  its  work  and  of  its 
peaceful  intentions.  In  so  far,  Zionism  must  always 
bear  a  quasi-political  character,  but  its  efforts  will  be 
directed  not  towards  obtaining  a  shadowy  charter,  but 
towards  obtaining  conditions  necessary  to  the  practical 
work  of  colonisation. 

The  question  is  whether  it  will  be  possible  to  gain  the 
confidence  and  goodwill  of  the  Turkish  Government 
towards  the  Jewish  colonisation  of  Palestine,  which 
would  naturally  be  attended  by  a  large  Jewish  immi- 
gration. The  Turkish  Government,  which  has  diffi- 
culties enough  in  dealing  with  the  national  aspirations 
of  the  various  nationalities  composing  its  empire,  would 
at  first  sight  hardly  welcome  a  national  increase  of 
strength  in  the  Jews,  hitherto  the  weakest  and  most 
submissive  nationality  of  the  empire,  from  whom  they 
might  in  future  have  to  expect  claims  for  the  recognition 
of  their  national  individuality,  similar  to  those  of  other 
nationalities.  Perhaps,  also,  deceived  by  the  charter 
idea,  and  by  many  other  misleading  statements  of  the 
Zionists,  they  may  fear  that  the  Jews  demand  political 
independence,  or  that  they  might  make  themselves 
politically  a  nuisance. 


288  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

It  appears  that  from  one  or  all  of  these  causes  the 
government  looks  askance  at  Zionism  ;  but  it  is  pro- 
bable that  sooner  or  later  they  will  change  their  attitude, 
since  their  fears  can  all  be  proved  to  be  groundless.  It 
is  certain  that  those  Jews  who  go  to  Palestine  under 
the  influence  of  Zionism  wish  to  form  a  nationality  and 
to  develop  their  own  individuality,  and  especially  their 
own  language.  But  this  does  no  harm  to  a  state  which 
already  includes  so  many  nationalities  *  and  which,  in 
spite  of  some  efforts  at  uniformity,  must  ever  remain 
a  conglomerate  empire.  The  fear  of  a  Jewish  occupa- 
tion of  Palestine  and  of  their  wresting  it  away  from  the 
Turks  is  absurd,  having  regard  to  the  relative  strengths 
of  Turkey  and  the  Jews.  Why  should  some  hundred 
thousand,  or  even  some  million  Jews — and  the  millions 
do  not  come  in  a  hurry — present  a  greater  danger  as  a 
nationality,  than  the  Arabs,  who  are  far  more  numerous 
and  far  more  powerful  in  view  of  their  long  connection 
with  the  soil  and  their  ingrained  national  language,  but 
against  whom  the  Turks  raise  no  objections. 

The  Zionist  congresses  have  repeatedly  declared  that 
the  integrity  of  Turkey  would  in  no  way  be  impaired 
by  Zionist  endeavour,  and,  indeed,  it  is  in  the  interest 
of  the  Jews  in  Palestine  to  belong  to  a  state  which  could 
protect  them  from  sanguinary  fights  and  skirmishes 
with  the  stronger  neighbouring  nationalities,  and  with 
which  a  young  independent  nation  would  be  certain 
to  be  assailed. 

While  Jewish  immigration  to  Turkey  would  entail 

1  The  Jews  of  Turkey  are  already  officially  a  recognised  nation, 
"  millet."  The  Turkish  word  "  millet  "  means  religious  community, 
as  well  as  nationality.  The  question  whether  the  Jews  are  a  nation- 
ality or  not  cannot  arise  in  Turkey,  a  religious  community  being 
there,  ipso  facto,  a  nationality. 


ZIONISM  289 

no  political  danger,  it  would,  on  the  other  hand,  most 
undoubtedly  represent  an  economic  and  cultural  asset. 
The  Jews  would  not  come  to  Palestine  empty-handed  ; 
their  coming  would  bring  an  influx  of  capable  men  and 
capital.  They  would  transplant  their  commercial  and 
scientific  knowledge,  their  enthusiasm  for  art  and  litera- 
ture, to  Palestine.  The  Jews  are  already  pioneers  in 
Palestine  ;  it  is  they  who  are  responsible  for  the  first 
signs  of  expanding  trade  and  industrial  enterprise,  for 
the  introduction  of  new  branches  of  manufacture,  for 
the  foundation  of  co-operative  societies  ;  it  is  they  who 
have  brought  arboriculture — notably  the  cultivation 
of  vineyards  and  oranges — to  their  present  importance 
of  being  the  typical  produce  of  Palestine  ;  they  have 
introduced  the  eucalyptus  tree  into  Palestine,  and 
thereby  rendered  originally  marshy  districts  habitable  ; 
their  colonies,  schools,  doctors,  apothecaries,  hospitals 
and  in  some  towns  their  suburbs,  are  on  a  much  higher 
level  than  those  of  the  native  population.  It  is  through 
the  Jews  that  the  customs  receipts  show  such  a  large 
increase  ;  they  have  European  needs  and  have  popu- 
larised the  means  to  satisfy  them. 

The  Jews  might  in  a  relatively  short  time  turn  Pales- 
tine into  the  model  country  for  all  Asiatic  Turkey  ; 
they  could  hasten  on  the  economic  and  cultural  develop- 
ment of  the  country.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that 
without  some  very  good  reason,  the  Turks  would  cut 
off  this  possibility,  and  refuse  all  this  wealth  of  capacity 
and  capital,  the  increase  in  their  customs  returns,  and 
the  advancement  of  culture  which  is  here  offered  them. 
Constitutional  Turkey  undoubtedly  desires  economic 
advancement.  But  at  every  step  this  is  hindered  by  the 
lack  of  scientific  and  technically  skilled  men  and  capital. 
She  is  bound  to  do  as  they  do  in  Russia  and  the  Balkan 

T 


2Q0  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

States — call  to  her  aid  men  and  capital  from  more 
highly  cultured  lands  ;  and  this  is  always  attended  by 
the  unpleasant  consequence  of  giving  the  European 
state  the  opportunity  of  enlarging  its  sphere  of  influence 
in  Turkey.  Turkey  can  only  escape  from  this  dilemma 
by  calling  to  her  aid  Jewish  engineers  and  Jewish 
capital.  Any  other  European  settlers  will  always 
remain  alien  to  Turkey,  and  enjoy  special  privileges 
which  are  irksome  to  the  Turkish  Government ;  immi- 
grant Jews,  on  the  contrary,  would  be  ready  to  ex- 
change their  European  citizenship  which  begets  for 
them  persecution  and  oppression,  for  the  privilege  of 
becoming  a  Turkish  subject  and  of  becoming  naturalised 
in  Turkey. 

Only  a  small  portion  of  Jewish  immigrants  to  Pales- 
tine have  hitherto  become  Ottoman  subjects,  but  this 
is  because  most  of  the  immigrants  have  been  elderly 
people.  The  young  immigrants,  especially  the  in- 
habitants of  the  colonies,  have  most  of  them  become 
so,  as  soon  as  they  are  certain  of  a  career  in  Palestine, 
i.e.  certain  that  the  government  will  grant  them  the 
same  social  and  national  rights  as  they  grant  other 
nationalities  of  the  empire. 

E.  Relations  with  the  non- Jewish  population  of  Palestine. 
Assuming  that  the  Turkish  Government  recognises 
the  advantages  of  Jewish  immigration,  and  favours  it, 
there  remains  to  be  overcome  the  difficulty  of  the  pre- 
sent non- Jewish  population  of  Palestine,  numbering  over 
500,000  souls.  It  is  clear  that  these  will  not  leave  the 
country  to  make  room  for  the  Jews.  This  even  the 
Zionists  would  not  desire.  Zionism  does  not  wish  to 
have  Palestine  exclusively  for  the  Jews  ;  it  only  seeks 
to  create,  by  a  steady  immigration,  a  large,  coherent, 


ZIONISM  291 

united  population  of  Jews  which  will  be  protected  from 
the  dangers  of  assimilation.  And  the  backward  state 
of  culture  of  the  native  population  nullifies  the  danger 
at  the  outset.  The  question  is,  in  what  spirit  the 
native  non- Jewish  population  will  view  an  increased 
Jewish  immigration.  Will  it  lead  to  serious  conflict  ? 
Hitherto  the  Arabs  have  not  shown  themselves  unsym- 
pathetic to  Jewish  immigration,  as  this  immigration 
has  brought  them  very  material  economic  advantages, 
opportunities  of  work  at  a  higher  wage,  custom  for 
their  agricultural  products,  rise  in  land  values,  etc. 
But  the  time  may  come  when  the  Jews,  by  introducing 
into  Palestine  large  industries  and  modern  agricultural 
methods,  may  become,  not  merely  buyers  and  con- 
sumers, but  very  dangerous  rivals.  It  may  well  be  that 
they  will  buy  up  the  land  at  prices  higher  than  the 
primitive  Arab  fellah  can  afford,  and  thus  deprive  the 
Arab  farmer  of  the  chance  of  extending  his  property. 
At  present  the  danger  of  this  is  not  imminent,  as  hardly 
one-half  of  the  land  is  cultivated — the  half  which  lends 
itself  to  corn-growing — while  the  other  half,  much  of 
which  is  suitable  for  arboriculture,  is  almost  wholly 
uncultivated,  the  Arab  fellaheen  being  deficient  in  the 
capital  and  knowledge  needed  for  plantation  growing. 
In  the  vicinity  of  the  towns,  however,  a  few  rich  Arabs 
have  started  fruit-growing.  So  long  as  Jewish  colonisa- 
tion is  confined  to  this,  the  Arabs  are  not  likely  to 
oppose  their  acquisition  of  the  land,  having  themselves 
no  use  for  it.  But  when  it  comes  to  corn-growing,  the 
increasing  immigration  of  the  Jews  is  likely  to  cause 
friction.  This  might  be  mitigated  somewhat  if  the 
Arabs  are  clever  enough  to  imitate  the  superior  agri- 
cultural methods  of  the  Jews.  They  would  then 
have  nothing  to  fear  from  the  competition  of  Jewish 


z92  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

producers,  while  the  change  from  extensive  to  inten- 
sive agriculture  would  necessitate  their  using  only  a 
fraction  of  their  present  agricultural  area.  In  this 
way  the  needs  of  the  Jewish  cereal  grower  could  be 
satisfied,  and  need  not  necessarily  cause  the  Arab  to  be 
expatriated. 

If  this  economic  difficulty  could  be  satisfactorily 
overcome,  there  is  not  much  to  fear  from  the  national 
jealousy  of  the  Arabs.  There  is  a  certain  affinity  be- 
tween the  Arab  and  the  Jew  as  there  is  between  the 
Arabic  and  the  Hebrew  languages.  It  is  highly  pro- 
bable that  the  two  would  live  happily  and  amicably 
together  even  if  the  Jews  were  to  come  in  great 
numbers.  One  must,  however,  always  be  prepared  for 
surprises,  and  the  Christian  Arabs  in  particular,  some 
100,000  persons,  in  contrast  to  the  Mohammedan  Arabs, 
bitterly  oppose  the  Jewish  immigration.  This  arises 
from  the  fact  that  the  Christian  Arabs  reside  mostly 
in  the  towns,  where  they  are  more  nearly  affected  by 
the  competition  of  the  new  Jewish  immigration  in  trade 
and  handicraft.  Furthermore,  being  in  possession  of 
large  latifundia,  they  view  with  alarm  the  increasing 
economic  strength  of  the  fellaheen  (peasants),  acquired 
by  working  at  a  higher  wage  in  the  Jewish  colonies,  and 
by  their  adoption  of  improved  agricultural  methods. 
The  Christian  Arabs  are,  therefore,  also  forced  to  pay 
higher  wages,  and  are  consequently  prevented  from 
adding  to  their  funds.  Besides  this,  there  is  the  re- 
ligious opposition,  rendered  doubly  bitter  by  the 
presence  of  so  many  clerics  and  missionaries  in  Pales- 
tine. It  may  be,  too,  that  they  fear  that  a  large  Jewish 
population  might  desecrate  their  holy  places,  and 
impede  the  stream  of  visitors,  on  whom  the  Christian 
Arabs    chiefly    live.      It    need    hardly   be    said    that 


ZIONISM  293 

these  holy  places  would  remain  unimpaired  whether 
the  majority  of  the  population  in  Palestine  were 
Mohammedan  or  Jewish.  They  have  long  been,  if  not 
dejure,  at  least  de  facto,  extra-territorial,  and  will  remain 
so  in  the  future. 

F.  Economic  possibilities  for  Jewish  immigrants  in 
Palestine. 

The  great  obstacle  which  stands  in  the  way  of  the 
segregation  of  the  Jews  in  Palestine  is  economic — 
the  lack  of  economic  attraction  to  Palestine.  The 
Jews  of  Eastern  Europe  live  in  miserable  poverty  and 
seek  to  emigrate  ;  but  their  destination  is  not  Palestine, 
but  America.  In  America,  a  great  industrial  country, 
the  Jew,  either  with  or  without  means,  can  earn  a  living 
in  whatever  calling  he  had  in  his  old  home.  In 
Palestine,  an  agricultural  country,  he  can  earn  a  living 
only  by  changing  his  occupation  and  turning  to  agri- 
culture. This  is  not  so  easy.  Leroy-Beaulieu  even 
says  that  it  is  impossible  for  a  townsman  ever  to  become 
a  farmer.  We  need  not  go  so  far  as  that,  but  it  is 
undeniable  that  the  metamorphosis  makes  great  de- 
mands on  a  man,  and  very  often  fails.  As  we  have 
said  before,  the  only  possible  chance  of  success  for  a  Jew 
with  means  is  to  take  part  in  a  thriving  fruit-growing 
concern,  and  thus  pave  the  way  to  agriculture  for  his 
children.  To  be  attracted  to  agriculture  the  young 
Jew  without  means  must  see  in  it  prospects  of  a  share 
in  profits,  of  co-operative  societies,  of  easy  credit,  so 
that  the  position  of  a  hired  labourer  may  lead  eventually 
to  independence. 

It  would  be  a  far  easier  task  to  settle  Oriental  Jews 
(Jews  from  Yemen,  Morocco,  Aleppo  and  the  Caucasus) 
in  agricultural  colonies.     These  are  already  drifting 


294  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

towards  Palestine.  But  the  spiritual  and  intellectual 
status  of  these  Jews  is  so  low  that  an  immigration  en 
masse  would  lower  the  general  cultural  standard  of  the 
Jews  in  Palestine  and  would  be  bad  from  several  points 
of  view.  In  small  numbers,  however,  they  might  be 
extremely  useful,  with  their  knowledge  of  Oriental 
conditions,  their  small  needs,  and,  in  particular, 
their  capacity  of  competing  in  wages  with  the  Arab 
agricultural  labourer.  The  East  European  Jew  cannot 
possibly  live  on  such  wages.  He  can  earn  a  living 
in  Palestine  only  by  work  which  makes  demands  on 
his  intelligence  and  reliability.  For  purely  manual 
labour  preference  is  naturally  given  to  the  Arab, 
who  is  the  cheaper  workman.  This  breach  in  the 
Jewish  economic  system  can  be  bridged  by  the  Oriental 
Jew,  who  can  do  the  rough  work  at  the  same  price  as 
the  Arab. 

Compared  with  agriculture,  the  industries,  trade  and 
commerce  of  Palestine  are  of  little  importance.  The 
land  has  neither  iron  nor  coal,  neither  good  harbours 
nor  navigable  rivers,  and  it  is  far  from  the  centres  of 
communication.  Great  industries  are  not  possible  ; 
even  the  far  more  favourably  situated  Balkan  provinces, 
with  all  their  mineral  wealth  and  with  state  aid,  can 
hardly  keep  up  with  the  competition  of  the  great  manu- 
facturing countries.  The  only  industries  with  any 
prospects  of  success  are  those  connected  with  the  pro- 
ducts of  local  agriculture  (cereals,  fruit,  vegetables, 
oil,  wool),  or  with  the  production  of  such  articles  as  do 
not  lend  themselves  to  transportation  from  foreign 
countries  to  Palestine.  Home  industries,  especially 
arts  and  crafts,  are  growing  in  importance  ;  wages 
are  low,  and  Oriental  wares  (carpets,  laces,  metal  and 
woodwork)  always  find  a  ready  market  in  Europe  and 


ZIONISM  295 

America.1  One  whole  town  (Bethlehem)  subsists  on 
the  manufacture  of  mother-of-pearl  articles,  sold  as 
relics  in  America  ;  and  in  Damascus,  tens  of  thousands 
find  employment  in  metal  and  woodwork.  With 
the  growth  of  these  industries,  it  may  be  that 
Palestine  will  extend  its  trade.  So  far  it  is  limited 
to  the  importation  of  European  manufactured  articles 
and  food-stuffs,  and  the  export  of  agricultural  pro- 
ducts which,  with  the  exception  of  oranges,  barley 
and  olive  oil,  are  neither  considerable  nor  profitable. 

Though  industry  and  trade  play  at  present  so  in- 
significant a  part,  it  is  possible  that  they  may  increase 
in  importance  in  the  near  future.  The  position  of 
Palestine,  in  its  relation  to  the  trade  of  the  world,  will 
be  greatly  improved  when  Jaffa  and  Haifa  have  built 
their  projected  harbours,  and  when  the  railway  in  Asia 
Minor  (now  in  the  process  of  construction)  is  continued, 
as  planned,  through  Palestine  to  Port  Said,  thus  bring- 
ing Palestine  into  direct  connection  with  the  European 
and  African  railway  systems.  The  Meccan  railway 
will  be  of  the  greatest  importance  to  Palestine  ;  it  will 
open  up  to  communication  the  fertile  and  hitherto 
thinly  populated  land  east  of  the  Jordan.  The  mineral 
wealth  of  the  Dead  Sea,  the  irrigation  value  of  the 
rivers,  the  fertility  of  the  Jordan  valley,  with  its  sub- 
tropical climate,  the  many  medicinal  springs,  the 
wonderful  winter  climate  which  could  make  Palestine 
a  rival  of  Egypt — all  these  await  development  and 
exploitation.     They  cannot  be  developed  in  a  day  or  a 

1  Home  industries,  in  the  form  of  arts  and  crafts,  designed  for 
export  trade,  have  a  great  advantage  over  all  other  industries .  They 
allow  the  workman  a  certain  independence,  and  encourage  individual 
talent.  They  do  not  in  any  way  lead  to  assimilation,  business 
between  the  workman  and  the  non-Jewish  buyer  being  effected 
through  a  middleman. 


296  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

night,  but  they  will  follow  gradually  on  the  general 
development  of  trade  and  communication  in  Palestine 
and  Syria. 

It  is  often  urged  that  Palestine  is  much  too  small  to 
hold  all  the  Jews.  Palestine  covers  an  area  of  about 
29,000  qkm.  and  has  a  population  of  600,000,  i.e. 
about  35  to  the  square  mile.  With  intensive  cultivation 
— to  which  the  land  is  peculiarly  adapted,  and  which 
must  have  prevailed  2,000  years  ago — there  is  not  the 
slightest  doubt  that  it  could  maintain  a  population 
of  100  and  more  to  the  square  mile.  In  other  words, 
that  it  could  hold  over  two  million  Jews.  The  number 
of  Jews  in  the  world,  however,  is  not  two,  but  twelve 
millions.  A  gathering  together  of  all  these  Jews  in 
Palestine  is  not  to  be  contemplated  for  a  moment.  But 
it  is  absolutely  wrong  to  suppose  that  Zionism  seeks  to 
solve  the  Jewish  question  in  the  sense  of  bringing  about 
at  one  stroke  a  revolution  in  the  abnormal  condition 
of  the  Jews  all  over  the  world.  Zionism  is  a  cure  for 
the  moral  distress  of  Judaism  rather  than  for  the 
economic  misery  of  the  Jews  ;  at  present  it  can  only 
create  in  Palestine  the  kernel  of  a  nation,  a  refuge  for 
those  Jews  who  wish  to  escape  from  assimilation.  It 
was  only  a  small  remnant  of  Jews  who  were  able  to 
withstand  assimilation  at  the  time  of  the  Babylonian 
exile.  It  will  only  be  a  small  remnant  to-day.  The 
great  majority  of  Jews  will  not  go  out  to  Palestine, 
and  with  the  present  scanty  prospects  of  earning  a 
livelihood  there,  it  is  undesirable  that  they  should. 
Nevertheless,  Zionism  is  of  importance  for  them  also. 
The  Zionist  movement  has  already  stirred  the  Jewish 
consciousness  of  many  a  Western  Jew.  How  much 
more  would  this  be  the  case  if  Zionism  should  succeed 
in  creating  a  new  Jewish  life  in  Palestine  ?     When 


ZIONISM  297 

conversion  and  intermarriage  are  constantly  on  the 
increase,  when  the  number  of  Jews  decreases  from  one 
census  to  the  next,  when  the  son  hurries  to  the  font 
and  despises  the  Judaism  of  his  father,  it  must  become 
clear  even  to  the  most  short-sighted  that  religion  alone 
is  not  strong  enough  to  save  the  Jews  in  the  Diaspora 
from  extinction.  If  then  there  come  from  Palestine 
reports  of  a  new  Jewish  life  growing  up  there  ;  of 
Jewish  farmers  living  on  the  produce  of  their  fields  ; 
of  the  land,  forgotten  for  eighteen  centuries,  being 
again  made  beautiful  by  the  labour  of  Jewish  hands  ; 
of  a  young  generation  growing  up  in  Jewish  schools, 
proud  of  their  Judaism  ;  of  the  Hebrew  language  once 
more  a  living  tongue  ;  of  Jewish  colleges  where  Jewish 
professors  teach  modern  science  and  scholarship  in  all 
branches ;  of  scientific  discoveries  ;  of  a  re-birth  of 
poetry  and  music — the  ancient  heritage  of  Israel — 
then,  indeed,  Zionism,  by  being  able  to  point  to  con- 
crete facts,  must  command  the  sympathy  and  support 
of  those  Jews  who  would  never  have  been  won  over  by 
theoretical  propaganda.1 

The  term  "  Cultural  Zionism  "  must  not  lead  us  into 


1  The  same  thing  applies  to  the  relation  of  Zionism  to  the  Jewish 
organisations  in  Western  Europe  and  America.  So  long  as  these 
work  in  the  direction  of  securing  complete  equality  for  the  Jews  in 
the  countries  in  which  they  are  settled,  in  the  fond  hope  that  they 
will  still  be  able  to  continue  their  separate  existence,  they  will  see 
in  Zionism  a  disturbing  element.  Their  attitude  to  Zionism  will 
change  only  when  they  see  for  themselves  whither  their  policy  of 
elimination  of  all  national  differences  and  their  efforts  at  social 
equality  are  leading  the  Jews — when  the  ever-increasing  number 
of  mixed  marriages  and  conversions  convince  them  that  they  are 
making  for  the  downfall  instead  of  the  uplifting  of  Judaism.  They 
will  then  recognise  in  the  Jewish  settlement  in  Palestine  a  certain 
guarantee  for  the  future  in  the  event  of  their  own  efforts  proving 
futile. 


298  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

the  error  of  thinking  that  Zionism  in  Palestine  means 
the  immediate  and  exclusive  creation  of  a  cultural 
centre.  Such  a  conception  would  be  utterly  false, 
because  a  living  Jewish  culture  in  Palestine  can  only 
grow  on  the  foundations  of  a  large  Jewish  population 
and  a  healthy  social  system.  One  might  possibly  main- 
tain a  few  scholars  and  educational  and  artistic  institu- 
tions for  a  certain  time  on  monetary  support  received 
from  abroad,  but  a  real  national  culture  must  be  the 
natural  outcome  of  a  healthy  national  life.  Whosoever 
desires  to  create  a  Jewish  culture  in  Palestine  must  first 
bring  thither  Jews  who  are  already  provided  with  the 
means  of  existence. 

Contrary  to  the  general  impression,  that  Palestine  is 
too  small  for  the  segregation  of  the  Jews,  it  might  be 
affirmed  with  more  truth  that  for  the  present  purposes 
of  Zionism  it  offers  too  large  a  field  for  colonisation. 
Not  reckoning  the  Jews  supported  by  Chalukah,  who 
have  gone  out  to  Palestine  from  religious  motives,  the 
Jewish  population  has  increased  only  by  30,000  souls 
during  the  last  thirty  years,  though  Baron  de  Roths- 
child's colonising  activity  fell  within  that  period.  The 
increase  was  thus  at  the  rate  of  about  1,000  a  year.  It 
is  possible  that  now  that  the  first  difficulties  have  been 
overcome,  immigration  may  increase  or  be  carried  on 
on  a  larger  scale,  but  we  must  not  be  too  sanguine. 
Every  immigrant  must  be  assured  of  a  livelihood 
beforehand,  and  the  creation  of  so  many  livelihoods 
in  an  essentially  agricultural  land  is  a  slow  process. 
If,  instead  of  an  annual  increase  of  1,000  we  calculate 
on  3,000,  5,000,  or  even  10,000  annually  during  the  next 
thirty  years,  we  have  probably  taken  the  maximum 
estimate.  In  any  case  there  can  be  no  question  of  any 
overcrowding  in  Palestine  resulting  from  immigration. 


ZIONISM  299 

And  in  fact  the  local  segregation  of  the  Jews  can  only 
be  accomplished  within  certain  restricted  areas  of 
Palestine.  The  towns,  all  of  which  have  large  Jewish 
populations,  have  been  hitherto  the  natural  centres. 
By  the  foundation  of  numerous  Jewish  agricultural 
colonies  in  the  neighbourhood  of  these  towns,  we 
should  obtain  the  basis  of  a  comprehensive  social  life  in 
which  Jews  would  participate  not  only  in  the  production 
of  the  raw  material,  but  in  its  manufacture,  and  finally 
in  the  exchange  of  commodities.  The  economic  area 
would  comprise  a  group  of  villages  centred  round  a 
town  which  would  serve  as  the  market,  the  small 
centres  would  be  brought  into  communciation  one  with 
the  other,  and  would  co-operate  whenever  possible, 
and  each  be  a  reflection  of  one  and  the  same  culture. 

There  remains  the  question  of  the  Jews  themselves. 
Flocking  to  Palestine  as  they  would  from  the  most 
diverse  countries,  speaking  different  languages,  lacking 
the  local  character  which  belongs  to  all  other  nations  by 
right  of  connection  with  the  soil,  how  will  they  be  able 
to  live  together  in  Palestine  in  peace  and  harmony  ? 
Is  it  not  likely  that  the  quarrels  and  religious  contentions 
with  which  the  Jews  in  Palestine  were  torn  2,000  years 
ago  will  break  out  afresh  when  the  Jews  are  once  more 
assembled  together  from  all  ends  of  the  earth  ?  There 
are  some  grounds  for  this  fear.  If  the  Jews  were  left 
to  themselves  bad  results  might  be  expected,  especially 
in  the  first  generation  before  the  feeling  of  strangeness 
between  the  different  sections  had  been  overcome. 
But  under  the  Turkish  Government  the  dissensions, 
even  if  they  break  out,  will  not  lead  to  any  open  show 
of  hostility.  It  may  be  hoped,  too,  that  by  the  usage 
of  a  common  language,  Hebrew,  by  sharing  in  the  same 
work  and  following  the  same  destiny,  they  will  draw 


300  THE  JEWS  OF  TO-DAY 

nearer  to  one  another,  and  that  discord,  if  it  cannot  be 
averted  altogether,  may  make  itself  heard  less  per- 
sistently. As  far  as  we  can  judge  by  the  present  con- 
dition of  the  new  immigrant  Jewish  population  of 
Palestine,  there  is  no  lack  of  friction  and  of  schisms, 
but  the  national  feeling  is  strong  enough  to  bridge  over 
all  dissensions.  Even  the  religious  antagonism  between 
the  "  Frommen  "  (orthodox)  and  the  "  Unfrommen  " 
(unorthodox),  which  is  so  pronounced  in  Europe,  has 
lost  its  bitterness  in  Palestine,  and  is  giving  place  to  a 
broad  tolerance.  Each  sees  that  the  other  is  also 
working  for  Judaism  and  wishes  to  remain  Jewish,  and 
this  does  away  with  the  bitter  feeling  caused  by  non- 
observance  in  Europe,  where  it  is  simply  the  first  step 
to  a  renunciation  of  Judaism. 

G.  The  prospects  of  Zionism. 

The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  a  local  segregation  of 
Jews  in  Palestine  are  great  or  small  according  to 
different  points  of  view  :  they  are  not  insuperable. 
The  Jews  who  consider  the  Zionistic  aim  impracticable 
or  Utopian  are  more  short-sighted  than  those  Zionists 
who  think  the  aim  already  accomplished  when  a  new 
colony  is  founded  somewhere  in  Palestine.  The  truth 
is  that  the  aim  of  Zionism — the  formation  of  a  coherent 
Jewish  population  in  Palestine  with  agriculture  as  its 
economic  basis  and  Hebrew  as  the  national  language — is 
difficult  indeed,  but  possible.  The  difficulties  must  not 
deter  us.  The  re-building  of  a  nation  requires  the 
utmost  effort,  and  the  bringing  into  play  of  all  the 
latent  strength  of  the  Jewish  people.  But  the  end  is 
worthy  of  the  effort.  For  Zionism  is  not  a  mere  national 
or  chauvinistic  caprice,  but  the  lastjiesperaU  stand  of  the 
lews_a^af^_^mhilation .     Should  the  denationalising? 


ZIONISM  301 

process,  which,  in  Western  Europe,  has  already  crushed 
all  independent  Jewish  culture,  spread  to  Eastern 
Europe — and  there  are  signs  that  it  is  beginning  to  do 
so — all  is  over  with  the  Jews  and  with  Jewish  culture. 
Once  lost,  a  national  culture  can  never  be  re-created, 
and  without  a  culture  of  its  own  the  total  absorption 
of  the  Jews  by  the  other  nations  is  only  a  question  of 
time.  If  the  Jews  wish  to  continue  to  exist,  no  pains 
should  be  spared,  no  sacrifice  considered  too  great. 
The  will  of  a  nation  cannot  be  resisted,  it  must  conquer 
in  the  end.  We  may  confidently  hope  that  the  energy 
and  the  will  to  live  of  the  Jewish  people  will  conquer 
all  difficulties,  and  that  the  nation  will  enter  in  Pales- 
tine upon  a  new  lease  of  life. 


INDEX 


Administration,  system  of,  251. 
Agricultural  Colonies,  243  et  seq. 
Agricultural  Schools,  254,  256. 
Agriculture,  49,  58,  241  et  seq. 
Alcohol,  77,  225. 
Aleppo,  283. 

Alexandria,  31,  109,  181. 
Algiers,  69,  70. 
Alliance  Israelite  Universelle,  37, 

122,  128,  263,  277,  280,  282. 
Alsace-Lorraine,  128,  152. 
America,  4,  37,  38,  201,  293. 
American  race,  229. 
Amsterdam,    69,    72,    160,    169, 

224,  225. 
Amulets,  5,  146. 
Andrt;e,  Richard,  213. 
Anthropology,  158,  195. 
Anthropomorphism,  149. 
Anti-Semitism,  102,    158,    185, 

194,  197  et  seq. 
Antokolski,  220. 
Anussim,  34. 

Arabic  culture,  16,  17,  no,  229. 
Arabic  language,  262,  263,  292. 
Arabs,  263,  288,  291. 
Aramaic,  16,  109,  112. 
Arboriculture,  253,  289,  291 
Architecture,  220. 
Argentine,  247-249. 
Armenians,  50,  140,  214,  219. 
Art,  220,  265. 
Arts  and  crafts,  294. 
Ashkenazim,   n,   160,  217,  264, 

281-284. 


Asia  Minor,  214.,  254,  270. 

Assimilation,  3,  14,  20,  24,  27, 
28,  44,  93.  98,  134.  155.  204, 
213,  228,  234,  237,  241,  265, 

275- 
Australia,  161,  189. 
Austria,  70,  81,  82,  86,  87,  102, 

125,   131,   132,   162,   166,   170, 

184,   186,  202,  221,  242,  267, 

268,  278,  279,  280. 
Auto-emancipation,  277. 
Autonomy,  17,  268. 


Baale  Emunoth,  147. 

Babylon,  16,  20,  26,  30,  44,  4Q, 

272. 
Baden,  Grand  Duchy  of,  54,  152. 
Badge,  19. 
Bankers,  61,  225. 
Basle  programme,  278. 
Bauer,  Bruno,  9,  143. 
Bavaria,  69,  102,  152,  160,  164, 

172,  173- 

Beloch,  31. 

Belz,  140. 

Beni  Israel,  35. 

Berlin,  9,  10,  14,  53,  69,  73,  74, 
77,  97,  102,  125,  152,  160,  163, 
170,  179,  183,  185,  189,  190. 

Berlin,  Treaty  of,  199.  286. 

Bernstein,  Ed.,  286. 

Beth  Hamidrash,  143. 

Birth-rate,  Decline  in,  3,  69  et  seq. 

Bohemia,  70,  115,  167,  170. 

Bourgeoisie,  Jewish,  13,  194- 


304 


INDEX 


Brazil,  249. 

Bremen,  165. 

Breslau,  69,  72,  76,  81,  174. 

British  Museum,  150. 

Brody,  103. 

Bucharest,  69,  70,  75,  169. 

Budapest,  69,   78,  80,  168,  170, 

191. 
Bukovina,  70,  115,  124,  170,  185, 

243,  268. 
Bulgaria,  69,  100,  102. 
Business  capacity,  48,  49,  215. 
Buzek,  Dr.,  96. 


Cabbala,  5,  147. 
Canada,  91,  92,  247. 
Capital  crimes,  225. 
Capitalism,  27,  49,  156,  205. 
Capital  towns,  103. 
Card-playing,  63. 
Castile,  32. 
Catholic  Church,  22. 
Catholics,  160,  164,  170. 
Cattle-rearing,  248,  249. 
Caucasus,  283. 
Cereal-growing,    249,    253,    257, 

292,  294. 
Ceremonial  religion,  149,  154. 
Ceremonies,  8,  140,  141,  155,  237. 
Chalukah,  263,  276,  283. 
Chamberlain,  Houston  Stewart, 

138,  142,  201. 
Charlottenburg,  70,  164. 
Charter,  285,  286. 
Chasdai  Ibn  Schaprut,  275. 
Chassidim,  144,  145,  146. 
Chassidism,  146,  147. 
Chazars,  36,  157,  182,  275. 
Cheder,  11,  121-124,  134,  151. 
Cherson,  244,  245. 
Chess,  gift  for,  50,  216. 
China,  28. 

Chinese,  50,  201,  203,  233. 
Chosen  people,  141. 
Chovevi  Zion,  277,  286. 
Christianity,  9,  31,  32,  177,  182- 

184,  194. 


Chuetas,  34. 

Circumcision,  16. 

Civil  marriage,  159,  160,  167. 

Colonies,  268. 

Jewish,  244-255,  297,  299. 
Colonisation,  national,  257,  264. 

Philanthropic,  255,  284. 

Societies,  251,  255,  283. 
Colonists,  257,  258. 
Commerce,  6,  49,  6i,  101,  267. 
Confession,   persons  of  no,    166, 

190. 
Conservative  party,  198. 
Conversion,    3,    19,    24,    31,    99. 

181  et  seq.,  206. 
Copenhagen,    55,    73,    161,    173, 

178. 
Cosmopolitanism,  217. 
Costume,  7,  12,  22,  147,  148. 
Criminality,  220,  221-225. 
Criminal  statistics,  222. 
Cultivation,  intensive,  296. 
Culture,  definition  of,  230. 

Jewish,  231  et  seq.,  265-267, 
298. 

National,  219. 


Daggatuns,  35,  36. 

Dairy  work,  247,  248,  254. 

Damascus,  295. 

Darmstadt,  71. 

Dead  Sea,  295. 

Deceit,  propensity  to,  221. 

Decline  in  birth-rate,  see  Birth- 
rate. 

Decrease  in  number  of  Jews,  83, 
84. 

Denationalisation,  10,  13,  129, 
135,  211,  228,  300. 

Denmark,  161,  178. 

Density  of  Jewish  population, 
38  et  seq.,  100  et  seq. 

Dependents,     non-wage-earning, 

64. 
Deuteronomy,  138. 
Diamond  industry,  63,  64,  225. 
Dietary  laws,  139,  152,  155. 


INDEX 


305 


Disintegration,  process  of,  3,  10, 

195- 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  216,  233. 
Dissenters,  99,  176,  191,  194. 
Domestics,  55. 
Donmes,  34. 
Dresden,  93,  190. 
Dreyfus,  Affaire,  200. 
Diihring,  Eugen,  171. 


Eastern  Europe,   3,  27,  66,   83, 

85,   211,   237,   253,   254,    261, 

266,  267,  268. 
Edison,  216. 

Education,  craving  for,  119. 
Of  young,  235,  236. 
Of  girls,  122,  123,  128. 
Egypt,  16,  26.  28,  30,  49,  141. 
Eliot,  George,  277. 
Elk,  Julius,  244. 
Elkind,  213. 
Emancipation,  4,  5. 
Emden,  5. 

Emigration,  4,  67,  85  et  seq. 
Emporiums,  51,  205. 
England,  90,   101,  112,  128,  162, 

188,  201. 
English,  112,  263. 
Enlightenment,  Jewish,  142,  149, 

155,  232. 
Environment,  231,  238. 
Ethics,  220,  232. 
Eucalyptus  plantation,  289. 
European  culture,  233  et  seq. 
Evolution,  235. 
Excess  of  births,  82. 
Eybenschiitz,  5. 
Ezra,  20,  24,  138,  141,  142,  149, 

155,  157- 


Falaschas,  35. 

Family  life,  77. 

Farmers,  Jewish,  247,  250,  252, 

254.  293- 
Fellahs,  291. 
Fishberg,  Maurice,  213. 


France,  159,  178,  200. 
Frankfurt-a-M.,  32,  54,  77,  152, 

160. 
French,  263,  282. 
Fruit-growing,     253,     254,     257, 

293- 


Galicia,  33,  43,  57,  65,  66,  88, 
96,  103,  ii2,  113,  122,  123, 
129,   135,   145,   148,   167,   185. 

201,  242,  243,  268,  278. 
Galilee,  249. 

Gaon,  18. 

Genius,  215,  265. 

Gerim,  35. 

German  (language),  111-116,  260. 

Germany,  51,  92,  96,  101,  152, 
159.  !63,  183,  187,  198,  201, 
219,  221,  226,  242,  279. 

Ghetto,  4,  19,  23,  94,  in,   150, 

202,  204,  231,  234,  242. 
Ghetto-culture,  237. 
Ghetto- Judaism,  10. 

Girls,    education    of,    122,    123, 

128. 
Goldmark,  219. 
Goldsmith  (trade  of),  64. 
Graetz,  32,  122,  137. 
Greece,  28. 

Greek  Church,  184,  185. 
Greek  culture,  16,  230. 
Greek  language,  16,  109,  112. 
Greeks,  50,  230. 
Guilds,  25,  27,  48. 
Gutmacher,  Elias,  276. 
Gypsies,  25. 

H 
Halberstadt,  152. 
Halevi,  Jehudah,  275. 
Half- Jewish  blood,  177,  179. 
Halpern,  Georg,  57. 
Hamburg,  11,  152,  164,  165. 
Handicraft,  60,  61,  63. 

Schools,  122. 
Harnack,  31. 
Hartmann,  Eduard  von,  171. 


U 


306 


INDEX 


Hebrew,   n,   16,   109,   no,   114, 

122,  259  et  seq.,  297. 
Hebron,  276,  282,  284. 
Heine,  Heinrich,  219,  234. 
Hellenism,  16,  18. 
Hertz,  216,  234. 
Herzl,  Theodor,  278. 
Hess,  Moses,  277. 
Hessen,  Grand  Duchy  of,  78,  97. 
Higher  Criticism,  155. 
High  schools,  125. 
Hillel,  141. 

Hirsch,  Baron  de,  247. 
Hirsch  Schools,  122,  128. 
Holiness,  138. 
Holland,  169,  173,  188,  221. 
Home  industries,  62,  294,  295. 
Home,  love  of,  250,  252. 
Horticulture,  246,  253. 
Hungary,  43,  71,  102,  126,  132, 

159,   168,   170,   173,   177,   186, 

221,  243. 


Ideals,  culture  of,  230-232. 

Idumaeans,  182. 

Illegitimate  children,  77,  78,  179. 

Illiterates,  120. 

Immortality,  belief  in,  137. 

Income  tax,  53. 

Indians,  52. 

Industry,  62,  66-68,  221. 

Industrialisation,  68,  267. 

Infant  mortality,  77-80. 

Inland  migrations,  67,  95. 

Instruction,    language    of,    260, 

263. 

Religious,  121,  129,  151. 
Intellectual  gifts,   50,   215,   217, 

226. 
Intensive  cultivation,  296. 
Intermarriage,  3,  19,  138,  157  et 

seq.,  171,  188,  189,  195,  202. 
Children    of,    1 71-180,    203, 
227. 
Irreligion,  98. 

Islam,  18,  31,  no,  141,  182. 
Isolated  culture,  234. 


Isolation.   Jewish,  20,   136,   140, 

156,  204. 
Israels,  Jcsef,  220,  234. 
Isserles,  Moses,  144. 
Italy,  32,  55,  96,  102,  162. 

J 
Jacobs,  Joseph,  52. 
Jacobson  school  in  Seesen,  128. 
Jahrzeit,  144. 
Jakobowski,  Ludwig,  280. 
Japanese,  234. 
Jargon,  4,  7,  11,  22,  no  et  >.eq., 

235.  259. 

Jehudah  Halevi,  275. 

Jerusalem,    30,    103,    276,    282, 
284. 

Jewish  Agricultural  and  Indus- 
trial Aid  Society,  247. 

Jewish  Colonisation  Association, 
123,  245-249,  251. 

Jewish  culture,  231  et  seq.,  265, 
267. 

Jewish  schools,  121,  238. 

Jewish  tradition,  117,  134,  236. 

Jewish  type,  171. 

Joachim,  219. 

Jordan  valley,  295. 

Journalism,  103,  225. 

Judaism,  Liberal,  13,  150  et  seq. 
Orthodox,  11,  14,  121,  122, 
139,    143,    147,    149,    151, 
152,  155.  156. 
Reform,  11,  16,  94,  153. 

Jurisprudence,  130,  131,  132. 

Jurists,  215. 

Jussuf,  King  in  Yemen,  182. 

K 

Kaddish,  144. 

Kaftan,  148. 

Kalicz,  35. 

Kalischer,  Zevi  Hirsch,  276 

Kant,  6. 

Karaites,  17,  35,  159. 

Kieff,  124. 

Koheleth,  137. 

Kohler,  Joseph,  215. 


INDEX 


307 


Landed  interest,  200. 
Landowners,  243. 
"  Landtaflig  "  property,  243. 
Language,  change  of ,  1 09-1 18. 

National,  263. 
Large  towns,    13,    15,    74,   98  et 

seq.,  188. 
Lassale,  216. 
Leipzig,  92. 

Leroy-Beaulieu,  20,  65,  150,  293. 
Lessees,  Lessors,  58,  243. 
Levant,  263. 
Liberal     Judaism,     13,     150    et 

seq.  , 
Lieberman,  219. 
Lilienthal,  216. 
Literature,  language  of,  259,  260. 

Neo-Hebrew,  261. 
Lombroso,  221. 
Luzzatti,  216. 
Luzzatto,  Samuel  David,  18. 

M 
Magyars,  201. 
Maimins,  35. 
Maimonides,  18. 
Manchus,  21. 

Manufactures,  62,  100,  246. 
Marranos,  34. 

Marriage,  civil,  159,  160,  167. 
Marx,  204,  261,  233. 
Materialism,  7,  151. 
Mecca  railway,  295. 
Medicine,  129,  130,  131,  132. 
Melamed,  120,  121,  151. 
Melanochroi,  213. 
Mendelssohn,  Moses,  5,6,8,14,17. 
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,  219. 
Mesopotamia,  269,  270. 
Messiah,  belief  in,  137,  276. 
Mesusa,  139,  147. 
Meyerbeer,  219. 
Middle  Ages,  19,  22,  25,  27,  28, 

32,  48,  49,  50,  119,  121,  141, 

157,  202,  217,  242. 
Middlemen,  237. 
Millet,  288. 


Mission  of  the  Jews,  154. 
Missionary  Societies,  192. 
Mittelhochdeutsch,  in,  260. 
Mneme-Theory,  218. 
Mohammedan,  17,  35,  149.  *58" 

159,  292-293. 
Mommsen,  31. 

Money-lending,  6,  25,  47,  237. 
Monism,  236. 

Monotheism,  137,  139,  I52.  l8a- 
Moravia,  33,  115,  278. 
Morocco,  11,  43,  293. 
Mortality,  76,  78-80. 

Infant,  77-80. 
Mother-tongue,  259-264. 
Munich,  93,  152. 
Mutazilites,  18. 
Mysticism,  146,  147. 

N 
Nablous,  141. 
Names,  187,  188. 
National  autonomy,  268. 
National  colonisation,  257,  264. 
National  language,  263. 
Nationality,  201,  212,  263,  287, 

288. 
Naturalisation,  200,  290. 
Nehemiah,  20,  24,  138,  216. 
Neo-Hebrew  literature,  261. 
Netherlands,  221. 
New  South  Wales,  58,  178. 
New  York,  40,  93,  103,  104. 
Nordau,  Max,  57,  280. 
North  Americans,  51. 


Odessa,  57. 

Oettinger,  246. 

Offenbach,  219. 

Oppenheimer,  Franz,  255. 

Orange  plantations,  249- 
1   Organ,  n,  149.  153- 
1   Orthodox  Judaism,  n,  14,  121- 
122,   139,   143,  J47»   M9>  15^ 
152,  155,  J56. 

Ostracism,  199,  202. 

Overcrowding,  67,  105. 


3o8 


INDEX 


Pale  of  Settlement,  42,  43,  56, 

67,  95,  96,  102,  112,  123. 
Palestine,    30,   31,   42,   49,    103, 

138,    160,   249,   253-255,   261- 

264,  270-272,  275  et  seq. 
Trade  in,  294,  295. 
Parvenu,  201,  205,  226. 
Paul,  182. 

Peddling,  22,  49,  60. 
Pentateuch,    translation    of,    6, 

10. 
Persecution,  20,  27,  32,  33,  185, 

281. 
Persia,  214,  283. 
Persians,  214,  229. 
Philanthropic  colonisation,  255, 

284. 
Philo,  16,  30. 

Philosophy,  study  of,  130-132. 
Phoenicia,  30. 
Piety,  142,  148,  153,  154. 
Pinsker,  Leo,  277. 
Pissaro,  220. 

Plantations,  246,  253,  285,  289. 
Plattdeutsch,  260. 
Poetry,  220. 
Poland,  32,  33,  42,  44,  104,  in, 

112,  197,  237,  263. 
Poverty  of  Jews,  55,  67. 
Prague,  32,  115,  153. 
Prayer,  143,  149. 
Pride  of  race,  213. 
Prolificness,  12,  72-74. 
Protestantism,     149,     152,     174, 

176. 
Protestants,   160,  164,   170,  174, 

176. 
Prussia,    33,    70-72,    75,    82,    92, 

101,  102,   126,   130,   163,   165, 

172,  174,  175,  179,  183,  211. 
Prussia,   East  Provinces  of,  96. 

102. 
Public  schools,  students  of,  124- 

129. 


R 


Rabbis,  120,  145,  146. 


Race,  138-139,  141,  158,  171, 
175,  179,  203,  213,  216,  218, 
225,  226-231. 

Race  culture,  227. 

Rationalism,  18,  142,  151,  154, 
188,  219. 

Reform    Judaism,    11,    16,    94, 

153. 
Religious  instruction,    121,   129, 

151- 

Rischon-le-Zion,  249. 

Ritual,  5,  12,  137,  139,  141. 

Roi,  de  la,  178,  183,  192. 

Rosenfeld,  Morris,  63. 

Rothschild,  Baron  Edmond  de, 
249,  277,  284. 

Roumania,  42,  56,  58,  61,  65,  67, 
75,  86-88,  102-103,  169,  201, 
206,  243. 

Rubinstein,  220. 

Russia,  3,  11,  36-37,  56-58,  60, 
68,  86,  91,  92,  95,  100,  112,  113, 
117,  123,  124,  133,  134,  185, 
197,  243-246,  267,  278. 

Ruthenians,  113,  263. 


Saadiah,  17. 
Sabbatai  Zevi,  5,  35. 
Sabbatarians,  35. 
Sabbath,  12,  152,  155. 
Sadducees,  16. 
Safed,  103,  276,  282,  284. 
Salomon  ibn  Gebirol,  18. 
Salonica,  35,  103,  282. 
Samaritans,  35,  141. 
Samson  school,  128. 
Samuel  ben  Chofni  Hakohen,  18. 
Sanhedrin  (of  France),  159. 
Saxony,  92,  165,  177. 
Schokland,  159. 
Scholasticism,  231. 
Schools,  Jewish,   121,    122,    128, 
237-238,  297- 

Non-Jewish,   120,   123,   134, 
236-237. 

Technical,  125    127. 
Sculpture,  220. 


INDEX 


309 


Semites,  214. 

Semon,  218. 

Sephardim,   no,   160,  217,  264, 

281,  282. 
Servia,  187. 
Shekel,  278. 
Sicily,  28. 

Side-locks,  n,  12,  147. 
Simson,  217. 
Skin  colour,  171. 
Slavonic    languages,     115,     116, 

117. 
Social    status,    23,    24,    47,    48, 

202. 

Lack  of,  189,  194. 
Sombart,  25,  49. 
South  Africa,  91. 
South  America,  162,  189. 
South  Arabia,  283. 
South  Europe,  214. 
Spain,   18,   19,  32,  44,  112,  182, 

Spaniolisch,  n,  no,  116,  262. 
Speculation,     love    of,    49,    51, 

63. 
Spinoza,  19,  233. 
Standard    of    life,    51,    52,    57> 

201. 
Sterility,  75,  174- 
Strabo,  31. 
Strassburg,  131. 
Surinam,  52. 
Sweating,  62,  64,  93,  204. 
Symbolism,  150. 
Synagogue,    attendance   at,    13, 

149,  152,  153. 

Service,  152,  153. 
Syria,  17,  31,  112,  122,  216. 


Talmud,   17,    121,    141-142,   217, 

231. 
Talmud  scholars,   18,    120..    217, 

218,  232. 
Technical  schools,  125,  127. 
Tephillin,  147,  150. 
Territorialism,  268. 
Thon,  Jacob,  220. 


Tiberias,  103,  276,  282,  284. 

Tivoli- program,  198. 

Torah,  122. 

Trade,   49,   51,  64,  6°.  93.   IO°- 

103. 
Tradition,  Jewish,  117,  134,  135, 

236. 
Triest.  162,  167. 
Trusts,  51. 

Turkey,  26,  41,  270,  288-290. 
Turkish  Government,   271,   282, 

285  et  seq. 

Language,  263. 

U 

Uganda,  269. 

United    States,    52,    85-90,    94, 

162,  200,  246. 
Universities,   129-133,   199,  260, 

279,  280. 
Usurers,  7,  47,  49- 


Vegetable    growing,     247,     249, 

254,  255»  294- 
Versatility,  49,  5°»  51- 
Vienna,  32,  117,  189,  190,  191. 
View  of  life,  232. 
Vine  culture,  249,  253. 
Vocation,  differences  of,  4,  140. 
Vocations  followed  by  Jews,  56, 

62-63,  64,  89. 

Of  offenders,  225. 

W 
Wasserman,  Rudolf,  220. 
Wealth  of  the  Jews,  52,  53. 
Weissenberg,  213. 
Western  Europe,  125,  129,  154, 

297,  301. 
Women's  work,  64,  252. 
Wonder-working    Rabbis,     145, 

146. 
Woodbine,  246,  254. 
Worms,  32. 


Xantochroi,  213. 


3io 


INDEX 


Y 

Yemen,  182,  293. 
Yiddish,  y,  11,  110-115,  259,  260, 
261. 

Overthrow  of,  117. 
Yom  Kippur,  152. 


Zaddik,  144,  145. 


Zangwill,  136,  147,  266,  268 

Zerubabel,  30. 

Zionism,  266,  268,  270,  275  et  seq. 

Zionism,  Cultural,  297. 

Zionist  Congresses,  278,  288. 

Zitsith,  139,  147. 

Zohar,  5. 

Zollschan,  213,  220. 

Zunz,  Leopold,  153,  183. 


GLASGOW:    PRINTED   AT  THE    UNIVERSITY   PRESS   BY   ROBERT   MACLBH03E   AND  CO.    LTD. 


Date  Due 

S> 

<l) 

":•      ..'"'•   . 


1    1012  01015  7115 


